Use of medical jargon by doctors in their patient’s midst may well scare them than provide solace to the already-scared minds. A study conducted by University of Hyderabad’s (UoH) Centre for Health Psychology revealed that while doctors would indulge in medical terminology with ease, patients, many of who cannot comprehend such jargon, would be alarmed at their use.
The research, conducted on 118 cardiac patients above 18 years, evaluated doctor-patient communication, and found that even educated patients could not understand many terms. This could lead to rising fear among them, it revealed.
Eleven common terms used by cardiologists included angina, blockage, cholesterol, echocardiogram, electrocardiogram, heart attack, heart failure, hypertension, lipid profile, palpitation and Treadmill Test.
Results of the study revealed that only five terms – blockage, cholesterol, electrocardiogram (ECG), heart attack and hypertension were properly understood by 80 per cent of patients, while terms like ‘palpitation’, assumed to be common usage, were understood by only 10.1 per cent of patients.
The term angina, which broadly refers to severe pain in the chest, sometimes radiating to the shoulder and jaws, is considered a significant symptom of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) but only 21.8 per cent of literate patients understood it.
“It was found that this was the most wrongly-understood jargon,” said Prof. Meena Hariharan, who guided the project. “What is alarming is that the knowledge about any of the jargonistic terms did not cross the mean score of 2 where the score ranged from 0-5. This indicates the below-average understanding of cardiology-related medical terms,” Prof. Hariharan said, arguing that steps had to be taken to create awareness, so that people are made comfortable.
The study was carried out by Marlyn Thomas. Assistant Professor Suvashisa Rana was the co-investigator. Sunayana Swain and Asher Andrew were also associated with the study. The research findings have been published in the journal Psychological Studies .
