Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Oxford, UK.
Drug Saf. 2022 Nov;45(11):1363-1368. doi: 10.1007/s40264-022-01223-x. Epub 2022 Sep 21.
Although English is the universal language of science, it is nevertheless the first language of only about 6% of the world's population, and 75% of people do not speak English at all. It is therefore important that accurate translations of scientific information should be available, not only for professionals but also for the general public. This applies to pharmacovigilance as much as to any other discipline.
The aim of this study was to determine how pharmacovigilance terms are translated into other languages, in order to judge the extent to which differences between languages might impair communication in pharmacovigilance.
I surveyed the translation of 26 pharmacovigilance terms into 26 languages via a panel of 83 pharmacovigilance experts.
Three types of terms emerged: Type 1-those that are similar in form across all, or almost all, of the languages surveyed (e.g. 'signal' and 'risk'); Type 2-terms that are similar in form across some languages but not all (e.g. 'pharmacovigilance' and 'surveillance'); Type 3-terms for which there are major differences across languages (e.g. 'hazard').
Misconceptions in the communication of pharmacovigilance information may arise through difficulties in translation. Metaphorical expressions are best avoided in serious scientific publications, in order to reduce the difficulties of translation. A multilingual glossary of terms and definitions, which could be used to program a dedicated machine translator, would be of value. Published guidelines offer guidance to methods of translation, but they are complex and time-consuming and are mostly used in translating instruments for eliciting patient-reported outcomes.
尽管英语是科学的通用语言，但它也只是全球约 6%的人口的第一语言，并且完全不会说英语的人占 75%。因此，科学信息的准确翻译不仅对专业人士而且对普通大众都是很重要的。这一点在药物警戒学中同样适用。
本研究旨在确定药物警戒术语如何被翻译成其他语言，以便判断语言之间的差异在多大程度上可能会影响药物警戒学中的交流。
我们通过一个由 83 名药物警戒专家组成的小组，调查了 26 个药物警戒术语翻译成 26 种语言的情况。
出现了三种类型的术语：1 型——在所有或几乎所有被调查的语言中形式相似的术语（例如“信号”和“风险”）；2 型——在一些语言中形式相似但并非所有语言都相似的术语（例如“药物警戒”和“监测”）；3 型——在语言之间存在重大差异的术语（例如“危害”）。
在药物警戒信息的交流中，可能会因翻译困难而产生误解。在严肃的科学出版物中，最好避免使用隐喻性表达，以减少翻译的困难。一个多语言术语和定义词汇表，可用于编程专门的机器翻译，将是有价值的。已发布的指南为翻译方法提供了指导，但它们很复杂且耗时，主要用于翻译用于收集患者报告结果的工具。
