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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1178

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Bilingual speech accommodation and compliance: Quantitative measures at a rural Welsh Pharmacy

Authors: Prys, Myfyr (1); Deuchar, Margaret (1); Roberts, Gwerfyl (2)
Submitted by: Prys, Myfyr (Bangor University, United Kingdom)

This paper reports on the development of an accurate method of measuring the degree of language concordance in health settings. Bilingualism in healthcare settings is a growing topic of interest within the research community. Language concordance in healthcare has been linked with increased compliance and better clinical outcomes (Sarver and Barker 2000; Stevenson 2004; Hack et al 2006), which makes it an area of interest for health policy.

The study employed a variety of qualitative and quantitative approaches towards analysing the speech patterns in 10 bilingual Welsh-English Medicine Use Review (MUR) consultations between a Pharmacist and patients. The quantitative method utilized a novel formula designed to quantify the degree of bilingual accommodation between patients as an accommodation score. The method used the corpus software program CLAN to count frequencies of English words in predominantly Welsh speech, which was considered an index of codeswitching. Transcripts were then segmented into six segments of equal length. Accommodation scores were calculated by measuring the success of a speaker in reproducing the code-switching frequency of interlocutors from one segment to the next. According to this system, a score of 1 represents perfect convergence, while negative scores represent divergence and scores beyond 1 represent overaccommodation.

As in previous research, convergence was found to be the predominant pattern in all conditions. The accommodation scores of the Pharmacist were consistently higher, than those of the patients he was interviewing. This was attributed to a variety of factors including the Pharmacist’s training in active listening skills and professional motivation to engage with patients. It is argued that these finding can play a role not only in enhancing the theory of speech accommodation but also in guiding the training of healthcare professionals.

References

Hack, T., Degner, L., Watson, P. & Sinha, L. 2006. Do patients benefit from participating in medical decision making? Longitudinal follow-up of women with breast cancer. Psycho-Oncology15: 9-19.

NPC Plus. 2007. A Competency Framework for Shared Decision-Making with Patients: Achieving Concordance for Taking Medicines. Keele, Staffs: NCP Plus.

Sarver, J. &  Barker, D. 2000. Effect of language barriers on follow-up appointments after an emergency department visit. Journal of General Internal Medicine 15(4): 256-264. 

Stevenson, F., Cox, K., Britten, N. & Dundar, Y. 2004. A systematic review of the research on communication between patients and health care professionals about medicines: the consequences for concordance. Health Expectations 7: 235-245.