Abstract

Aim. To assess patients’ barriers and difficulties in understanding medical information. Material and methods. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted on a convenience sample of laypersons. Study inclusion was done from three cities from Romania, in 2015-2016, on a voluntary basis. The questionnaire was developed considering data from scientific literature on this topic and authors’ experience, and pretested on a small number of subjects in order to identify the deficiencies and correct them. Results. Study sample included 62 persons, 39 females and 23 males, with ages from 18 years old to 64 years old. Patients argued primarily through not fully understanding in general the medical information as not having medical training. Asked about the difficulties in understanding the information presented to them by the doctors, main problems identified by them were in relation to the way the physicians explained i.e., used words they didn’t understood, and information presented was perceived as being usually too brief. Main patients’ difficulties when searching medical information on the internet were related to searching and finding data, and understanding the information found. Generally patients were not very interested in participating in conferences on health topics for laypersons, main reason given being lack of time. Conclusions. Patients’ barriers and difficulties in understanding medical information is firstly related to perceived difficulty to understanding the information without having adequate training in this scientific domain. Better ways to overcome this problem are needing considering health literacy influences health behaviour and access to health care systems, with general impact on health status.

Authors and Affiliations