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THE IMPACT OF MEDICAL JARGON ON PATIENT COMPREHENSION AND SATISFACTION.

Abstract

Using medical jargon can significantly impact patient comprehension of medical diagnoses and directives, particularly when health care information is delivered using complex terminology. This study examined how medical jargon affects college students’ understanding of medical diagnoses and health care interactions. Participants (N = 32) viewed three videos of a medical care provider explaining different diagnoses across three topic areas (orthopedics, diabetes, cancer); the videos were randomized and varied in complexity level as determined by a standardized measure of terminology complexity and script length. Participants also completed a vocabulary assessment, including several questions assessing familiarity with medical terminology. We hypothesized that individuals with lower vocabulary levels would be disproportionately negatively impacted by more complex, jargon-filled simulated diagnoses. Results indicated that overall, as the simulated medical diagnoses became more complex, participants rated them lower in clarity (p < .001, ŋ2 = .331) and reported less understanding (p < .001, ŋ2 = .342). These differences, however, were not qualified by participant vocabulary level, and participant vocabulary scores were not related to video comprehension ratings overall (p = .497, ŋ2 = .004). While a restriction of range within the medical term vocabulary sub-scores prevented an examination of the impact of medical knowledge on ratings, our data suggest that future research should take such pre-existing knowledge into account; collapsing across difficulty levels, average ratings differed across the three topics (p = .014), with participants rating orthopedic (M = 3.05, of 5) diagnoses as more difficult to comprehend than diabetes (M = 3.48) and cancer (M = 3.52) diagnoses. Overall, our data support prior findings that complex medical language can hinder patient understanding. Future research should explore interventions such as the use of visual aids, plain language summaries, and health care professional training to improve communication and enhance patient comprehension in medical settings.

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