| 1. |
- Gavioli, Laura, et al.
(author)
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Reflections on Doctor Question – Patient Answer Sequences and on Lay Perceptions of Close Translation
- 2021
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In: Health Communication. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 36:9, s. 1080-1090
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The lay perception of those who work with interpreters in their professional conversations (and sometimes of interpreters themselves) is that translation of what they and their patients/clients say should be as close as possible. The very idea of close translation may seem simple, but the practice of rendering spontaneous talk-in-interaction as close as possible is quite complex, and requires much more from the mediator than textually close renditions. In this paper, we discuss what is involved in the accomplishment of close rendering in talk. We focus on question-answer sequences with clinicians and patients, when details about the patients’ history and their symptoms are collected. We show that meaning is achieved and rendered through processes that may go rather beyond the single words and utterances and that involve the contribution of all the interlocutors. We show three types of sequences taken from a collection of authentic data audio-recorded in health care services in Italy and transcribed to allow for analysis. The sequences show three different forms of talk, found in the data, where participants pursue close, precise rendition of medical details. The analysis highlights that the Italian intercultural mediators (just like those trained and assigned as public service interpreters in other countries), even in these cases which are peculiarly focused on precise details, do need to take responsibility not only for translating the textual items but also for coordinating turns at talk. It is responsible turn-coordination which leads to rendering meaning closely.
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| 2. |
- Gerger, Heike, et al.
(author)
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Lay Perspectives on Empathy in Patient-Physician Communication : An Online Experimental Study
- 2024
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In: Health Communication. - : Routledge. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 39:6, s. 1246-1255
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research indicates that patients consider empathy as a key factor contributing to the quality-of-care. However, ambiguities in the definition of this multidimensional construct complicate definite conclusions to-date. Addressing the challenges in the literature, and using a hypothetical physician-patient interaction which explored patient-perceived differences between expressions of affective empathy, cognitive empathy, compassion and no empathy, this study aimed to test whether lay participants' evaluations of the quality-of-care depend on the type of empathic physician behavior, and on the physician's gender. We conducted a randomized web-based experiment using a 4 (type of empathy) by 2 (physician gender) between-subjects design. Empathy was subdivided into three concepts: first, affective empathy (i.e. feeling with someone); second, cognitive empathy (i.e. understanding); and third, compassion (i.e. feeling for someone and offering support). Perceived quality-of-care was the primary outcome. Compared with non-empathic interactions, quality-of-care was rated higher when physicians reacted cognitively empathic or compassionate (d = 0.71; 0.43 to 1.00 and d = 0.68; 0.38 to 0.98). No significant difference was found between affective empathy and no empathy (d = 0.13; -0.14 to 0.42). The physician's gender was not related with quality-of-care. Aspects of participants' personality but not their age, gender or the number of physician visits were associated with quality-of-care. No interactions were observed. In showing that patients rated quality-of-care higher when physician reactions were described as cognitively empathic and compassionate, as compared with affectively empathic or non-empathic, our findings refine views about the kinds of empathy that are important in patient care with implications for clinical practice, education and communication trainings.
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| 3. |
- Geusens, Femke, et al.
(author)
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First Comes Substance Use, Then Comes Social Media Posts? : Examining the Temporal Ordering and Relative Strength of Relations Across Alcohol, Tobacco and Marijuana Use and Posting Behavior
- 2023
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In: Health Communication. - : Routledge. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Social media posts represent a major route by which youth share their substance use cognitions and experiences with others. Extant research has primarily examined relations between alcohol-related posts and posters’ own alcohol use, yet little is known about the role of social media in the use of less socially accepted substances, namely tobacco and marijuana. Our study represents the first to examine the relative strength of this relation across alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. The current research used a one-month time lag to tease apart the temporal ordering of substance-use-posting and participants’ own substance use. A sample of 282 15-20-year-olds (Mage = 18.4, SD = 1.3, 52.9% female) in the United States completed two self-report surveys, one month apart. Results of a cross-lagged panel model revealed significant effects of alcohol and marijuana consumption on subsequent alcohol- and marijuana-related posting, respectively (i.e., selection effects). However, reverse relations (i.e., self-effects) were not significant. Further, we found no differences in the strength of selection effects across substances, suggesting they are similar for both more (alcohol) and less (marijuana and tobacco) socially acceptable substances. Results point to the importance of using young people’s social media posts as a way to help identify individuals at risk for heightened substance use and social media as a mechanism for targeted prevention programming.
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| 4. |
- Heckemann, Birgit, 1969, et al.
(author)
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Finding the Person in Electronic Health Records. A Mixed-methods Analysis of Person-centered Content and Language
- 2022
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In: Health Communication. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 37:4, s. 418-424
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The co-creation and sharing of documentation of person-centered care is important, but challenging in clinical practice. Online access to health records is considered essential to increase patient participation and empowerment in person-centered care provision. The aims of this study were (1) to identify the extent of person-centered content in medical inpatient records and discharge letters; (2) to describe the characteristics of the language and rhetoric used in discharge letters. This was a concurrent, mixed-methods study involving a deductive, quantitative analysis of person-centered content in 69 Patient Accessible Electronic Health Records from patients with pituitary tumors, and an iterative, qualitative language analysis of a nested sample of 57 discharge letters. Both the content and language of inpatient records were mostly patient-centered. Records were concerned with the documentation of symptoms and medical and care interventions. There was little person-centered documentation of patients’ preferences, wishes and needs, and shared decision-making. In the discharge letters, written for the patients, some physicians had attempted to write in a person-centered way, using plain language and a narrative. However, most wrote in a style that was reflective of their discourse community, using abbreviations and medical terms. Established norms for documentation in healthcare are a barrier to person-centered documentation. Patients’ needs and preferences about documentation should be explored to increase understanding of how person-centered documentation can be achieved in clinical practice.
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| 5. |
- Landqvist, Mats, 1960-, et al.
(author)
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Drawing the Line between Sick and Healthy : Normality Constructions in Health Communication Contexts
- 2020
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In: Health Communication. - : Routledge. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 35:12, s. 1545-1555
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper we examine how traditional views of normality are negotiated, indorsed and resisted when talking about children with heart defects. Having as a starting point an ethnographic project that aimed to study knowledge construction when being pregnant or having a child with a heart defect, we focus on argumentation put forward by clinicians and parents in order to understand the forms that normality takes in relation to children's health and illness and the way that it is constructed argumentatively and linguistically. More specifically, we draw data from recorded doctor-patient consultations, ethnographic interviews and entries from family blogs and forums and focus on those instances where normality is negotiated as a means of providing a medical consultation or of taking and motivating decisions about the child's health and everyday life. The analysis is conducted by identifying content and logical topics in the data and showing how constructions of normality and alternative conceptions are constructed in discourse. Discourses are additionally related to discursive, semiotic framing and the realization of norms. Our results highlight a duality that is being painted both in the clinicians and in the parents' discourse when negotiating the illness and the accompanying risks in the child's everyday life. Some of the traditional norms being re-constructed and re-negotiated in the data are those of stigmatization, diversity, responsibility and freedom of choice.
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| 6. |
- Roble, Sagal, et al.
(author)
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COVID-19 Information in Sweden : Opinions of Immigrants with Limited Proficiency in Swedish
- 2022
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In: Health Communication. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 37:12, s. 1510-1519
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of health information for prevention of communicable disease. Knowledge about groups that have high risk is important to prevent disease transmission. In Sweden, immigrants have been identified as one such group. Yet, little is known about where they have sourced information about COVID-19 and their opinions toward it. The aim of this study was to describe the COVID-19 information sources used by immigrants with limited proficiency in Swedish as well as their opinions on how comprehensive the information has been, the importance of the recommendations and their possibility to follow them. A cross-sectional survey was conducted via introductory Swedish language classes in Region Uppsala (n = 855). The results showed the immigrants were using different information sources, with the majority using school, media and social media. The immigrants’ opinions about COVID-19 information differed. Most reported they knew where to find information; however, over two-fifths reported the recommendations from the authorities should be more extensive. The majority reported it is important to follow the recommendations, whereas the possibility to follow the recommendations was more mixed. Age differences in opinions toward COVID-19 information were detected. Although the results were largely positive, there still appears to be a need for improvement in how immigrant groups with limited ability in the host country´s language are reached. Effective health communication that engages the whole nation is an important factor authorities should commit to as we face the current pandemic. This research suggests that an approach tailored by age could be helpful.
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| 7. |
- Sinclair, Samantha, 1983-, et al.
(author)
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Do Social Norms Influence Young People’s Willingness to Take the COVID-19 Vaccine?
- 2023
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In: Health Communication. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 38:1, s. 152-159
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although young adults are not at great risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19, their willingness to get vaccinated affects the whole community. Vaccine hesitancy has increased during recent years, and more research is needed on its situational determinants. This paper reports a preregistered experiment (N = 654) that examined whether communicating descriptive social norms – information about what most people do – is an effective way of influencing young people’s intentions and reducing their hesitancy to take the COVID-19 vaccine. We found weak support for our main hypothesis that conveying strong (compared to weak) norms leads to reduced hesitancy and stronger intentions. Furthermore, norms did not produce significantly different effects compared to standard vaccine information from the authorities. Moreover, no support was found for the hypothesis that young people are more strongly influenced by norms when the norm reference group consists of other young individuals rather than people in general. These findings suggest that the practical usefulness of signaling descriptive norms is rather limited, and may not be more effective than standard appeals in the quest of encouraging young adults to trust and accept a new vaccine.
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| 8. |
- Vanherle, Robyn, et al.
(author)
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Drinking Buddies : The Importance of Proximal Norms in Emerging Adults’ Alcohol-Related Private and Public Social Media Use
- 2022
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In: Health Communication. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027. ; 38:14, s. 3301-3315
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Exposure to alcohol posts on social media has been found to be associated with emerging adults’ alcohol use. An important mechanism through which this association seems to occur are social norms. Thus far, however, research has not differentiated between proximal and distal norms and has not accounted for the private (e.g. Instagram private features, Snapchat) and public media outlets (e.g. Instagram public features) through which these norms might have been constructed. The results of our online survey among emerging adults (N = 789, Mage = 21.46, SDage = 1.88, 56.4% female), therefore, showed that exposure to alcohol posts on private SNS features in combination with descriptive proximal norms, instead of more public SNS features and distal norms, played an important role in emerging adults’ alcohol use. As such, future research should focus more thoroughly on the interrelations between SNS private features and proximal normative perceptions and try to better understand on which social cues normative perceptions of proximal other’s alcohol consumption are based.
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| 9. |
- Vigier, Marta, et al.
(author)
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An Investigation of Patients and Doctors Autonomic Nervous System Responses Throughout News-Focused Medical Consultations
- 2023
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In: Health Communication. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1041-0236 .- 1532-7027.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although it is clear that people experience physiological arousal in anticipation of news-focused medical consultations, our knowledge of peoples experiences during and throughout these consultations is scarce. We examine interbeat interval responses (IBI) of patients and doctors during real-life medical consultations to understand how the experiences of both parties change throughout these encounters and whether they differ from each other. We also examine how the type of news delivered affects responses. We measured the IBI responses of patients and their oncologists throughout 102 consultations in which providers delivered news (classified as good, bad, or status quo) to patients about a recent computerized tomography scan. We observed two distinct phases of consultations: an initial "news" delivery phase and a subsequent "information" phase. During the news phase, on average, patients IBI responses rapidly increased-indicating less autonomic arousal over time - whereas doctors responses did not change over time. In contrast, throughout the information phase, on average, both patients and doctors responses remained steady. During the information phase, responses differed based on news type: on average, status quo consultations involved an increase in autonomic arousal, whereas good and bad news consultations involved no changes. Lastly, we observed significant variability in patients responses during both phases. In sum, on average, patients (but not doctors) experience decreases in autonomic arousal while news is being delivered, suggesting that anticipatory distress regarding these consultations wanes quickly. However, our results also indicate that patients experiences vary from one another, and future research should focus on factors explaining this variability.
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| 10. |
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