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Article published In: Specialised Translation in Spain: Institutional dimensions
Edited by José Santaemilia-Ruiz and Sergio Maruenda-Bataller
[Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 30:2] 2017
► pp. 592–610

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Understanding and enhancing comprehensibility in texts for patients in an institutional health care context in Spain

A mixed methods analysis

 | Universitat Jaume I
 | Gentt group
Published online: 26 March 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.00008.gar
Abstract
This paper aims to analyse text comprehensibility in a corpus of Fact Sheets for Patients (FSPs) in Spanish as used in a real clinical and institutional setting in Spain; and to provide data and criteria that can help writers and translators to enhance text comprehensibility when dealing with FSPs. Regarding the methodology, we analysed a corpus of FSPs in Spanish in three subsequent stages: (1) readability formulae, (2) expert analysis, and (3) questionnaires and focus-groups addressing the real target readership of patients. Experts produced improved versions of two of the texts that were then compared and judged by the patients. According to the Inflesz/Word correlation we used in our analysis most texts of the corpus fall within normal difficulty values. However, the communication experts made critical comments about some of them regarding both readability and legibility and patients expressed the need for improvement of some aspects of the texts. This fact leads us to conclude that there is considerable room for improvement in FSPs in Spanish. Highly-sensitive patients and situations require the participation of real patients as readers in order to achieve the optimum degree of quality of originals and translations. Therefore, patients’ perceptions can be crucial to medical writers and translators when writing FSPs in a more comprehensible and empathetic way.
Resumen
El presente trabajo plantea el análisis de la comprensibilidad textual en un corpus de folletos para pacientes en español de los que se utilizan en contextos clínicos e institucionales reales en España; y proporciona datos y criterios que pueden ayudar a redactores y traductores a mejorar la comprensibilidad cuando trabajen con dichos folletos.
Desde el punto de vista metodológico, se analiza un corpus de folletos para pacientes en español en tres etapas: (1) fórmulas de legibilidad, (2) análisis de expertos, y (3) cuestionarios y focus-group dirigidos a pacientes como destinatarios reales. Los expertos producen versiones mejoradas de dos de los textos, que posteriormente son comparados y evaluados por los pacientes. Así, siguiendo la correlación Inflesz/Word que utilizamos en nuestro análisis, la mayoría de los textos del corpus se enmarcan dentro de los valores normales de dificultad. Sin embargo, los expertos en comunicación realizan comentarios críticos sobre algunos de ellos en relación con su legibilidad y los pacientes ponen de manifiesto la necesidad de que se mejoren algunos aspectos de los textos. Todo ello nos lleva a la conclusión de que todavía hay mucho margen de mejora de los folletos para pacientes en español. La existencia de pacientes y situaciones altamente sensibles requieren de la participación de pacientes reales como lectores para alcanzar un grado óptimo de calidad de los textos originales y sus traducciones. En ese sentido, las percepciones de los pacientes pueden resultar cruciales para que los redactores y traductores médicos aborden la redacción de los folletos para pacientes de un modo más comprensible y empático.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methods
    • Stage I.Analysing comprehensibility through readability formulae
    • Stage II.Analysing comprehensibility through questionnaires to language and communication specialists
    • Stage III.Analysing comprehensibility through focus-groups and questionnaires answered by patients
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion, conclusion and practical implications
    • 4.1Discussion and conclusion
    • 4.2Limitations and practical implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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