A progressing tumour? Negative blood culture? New study looks at how teens can misinterpret medical jargon

“The tumour is progressing.”“Your blood culture was negative.”“There were bugs in your urine.”Phrases like these are commonplace in a clinical setting, but can difficult for the general public to understand, especially teenagers, a new study has found.The study, led by researchers from Minneapolis, looked at survey responses from 71 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 attending the Minnesota State Fair to see how well they could understand medical jargon commonly used by clinicians. This study used an identical survey with the same list of jargon used in a 2022 study that looked at adults.“In healthcare conversations, clinicians continue to use medical jargon despite assuming they are communicating clearly, causing confusion for patients. Prior studies have evaluated adults’ perception of medical jargon, but few studies have evaluated how teenagers perceive it,” the researchers wrote.The vast majority (97%) of teens surveyed knew what “negative” cancer screening results meant. However, fewer (69%) correctly understood the phrase, “your tumour is progressing,” compared to 79% of adults. Similarly, only 54% of teens knew what “positive” lymph nodes referred to.The findings also showed that lay terms were easier to understand. Just over half of the teen respondents (52%) understood what it meant to have “negative blood culture.” However, 89% understood the phrase, “Your blood tests showed me that you do not have an infection in your blood.”“Misinterpreting positive lymph nodes or the fact that a tumour is progressing as good news can have detrimental consequences; in lay language, positive and progress are usually used to indicate something good or moving in the right direction,” the researchers noted.In addition, 26% of adults knew what “bugs in the urine” meant, compared to 10% of teens. The term “febrile” was understood by 10% of adults and zero teens, and none of the teens or adults knew what an “occult infection” was.“NPO,” a Latin acronym that refers to nothing by mouth, was another piece of jargon that was poorly understood, as none of the teens surveyed knew that that meant. “Nothing by mouth” was easier to understand, as 74% adults understood the phrase. However, only 48% of teens correctly identified the meaning. The researchers say clinicians are likely trying to avoid using jargon when they use the term “nothing by mouth” instead of “NPO.” However, it is still an uncommon way of describing eating and drinking and may still be misinterpreted, especially among teens.“Given that this is not the typical way people discuss eating and drinking (ie, ‘taking things by mouth’), it is not surprising that more than half of teenagers and one-quarter of adults still do not understand what this means,” the researchers wrote.“Identifying these areas of misunderstanding is important to create optimal communication, as clinicians may not recognize that some of the words and phrases they use are, in fact, jargon.”The researchers say more research is needed to understand how the general public, especially children and teenagers, understand medical jargon, and look into the suitability of alternative phrases to help clinicians reduce the use of jargon.

A progressing tumour? Negative blood culture? New study looks at how teens can misinterpret medical jargon

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