The Influence of Medicalese on Patient Relevant Outcomes

Physicians and patients generally use different kinds of languages during medical encounters. Physicians are familiar with and regularly use both their everyday language(s) and medical language, commonly referred to as ‘medicalese’, whereas patients are typically only fluent in their everyday language(s) and tend to be unfamiliar with medical language. A mixed methods survey based study was implemented to 1) investigate the influence of physicians’ use of ‘medicalese’ (formal medical terminology) on respondents’ (patients') understanding of a newly presented diagnosis and associated management plan and 2) describe respondents' (patients') impressions of physicians’ competence, communication skills and professional conduct in relation to physicians’ use of medicalese. Medical language had an effect on participants’ comprehension of the presented information and on participants’ perceptions of the physician: the use of medical language was significantly and negatively associated with participants’ comprehension of the presented diagnoses and treatment plans, and participants’ perceptions of physician competence, communication skills and professional conduct.