Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston, ON, Canada.
Department of Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
JCO Glob Oncol. 2023 Feb;9:e2200366. doi: 10.1200/GO.22.00366.
This study sought to examine whether there was an association between language barriers and patient satisfaction with breast cancer care in Sri Lanka.
A telephone-based survey was conducted in the three official languages (Sinhala, Tamil, or English) among adult women (older than 18 years) who had been treated for breast cancer within 6-12 months of diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute of Sri Lanka. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Satisfaction with Cancer Care core questionnaire was adapted to assess three main domains (physicians, allied health care professionals, and the organization). All scores were linearly transformed to a 0-100 scale, and subscores for domains were summarized using means and standard deviations. These were also calculated for the Sinhalese and Tamil groups and compared.
The study included 72 participants (32 ethnically Tamil and 40 Sinhalese, with 100% concordance with preferred language). The most commonly reported best aspect of care (n = 25) involved affective behaviors of the physicians and nurses. Ease of access to the hospital performed poorest overall, with a mean satisfaction score of 54 (30.5). Clinic-related concerns were highlighted as the worst aspect of the care (n = 10), including long waiting times during clinic visits. Sixty-three percent of Tamil patients reported receiving none of their care in Tamil and 18% reported experiencing language barriers during their care. Tamil patients were less satisfied overall and reported lower satisfaction with care coordination ( = .005) and higher financial burden ( = 0.014).
Ethnically Tamil patients were significantly less satisfied than their Sinhalese counterparts and experienced more language barriers, suggesting there is a need to improve access to language-concordant care in Sri Lanka.
本研究旨在探讨语言障碍是否与斯里兰卡乳腺癌患者对护理的满意度有关。
在斯里兰卡国家癌症研究所，对确诊后 6-12 个月内接受过乳腺癌治疗的成年女性（18 岁以上），以电话形式用三种官方语言（僧伽罗语、泰米尔语或英语）进行调查。采用欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织（EORTC）患者对癌症护理满意度核心问卷进行评估，涵盖三个主要领域（医生、辅助保健专业人员和医疗机构）。所有评分都线性转换为 0-100 分的量表，通过均值和标准差来汇总各领域的子评分，同时计算僧伽罗语和泰米尔语组的评分并进行比较。
本研究纳入 72 名参与者（32 名泰米尔族和 40 名僧伽罗族，首选语言完全一致）。报告最多的护理最佳方面（n = 25）涉及医生和护士的情感行为。总体而言，最不受欢迎的是进入医院的便利性，满意度平均得分为 54（30.5）。诊所相关问题是护理最差的方面（n = 10），包括就诊时的长时间等待。63%的泰米尔族患者表示他们的护理中没有使用过泰米尔语，18%的患者表示在护理过程中遇到过语言障碍。泰米尔族患者总体满意度较低，对护理协调（ =.005）和经济负担（ = 0.014）的满意度较低。
泰米尔族患者的满意度明显低于僧伽罗族患者，且他们经历了更多的语言障碍，这表明斯里兰卡需要改善获得语言一致的护理的途径。
