Abstract Shared understanding of words used in cancer care is crucial to the quality of patients’ engagement with their treatment. A cancer diagnosis introduces the patient to many unfamiliar words and meanings. This study identifies words that are prone to impede communication by (i) evaluating lay participants’ (n = 292) definitional understanding of terms commonly used in cancer care and (ii) comparing the connotations of terms held by lay participants with those held by healthcare practitioners (n = 82). A critical impediment to definitional understanding was found when words are used in a different, sometimes contradictory, way from their meaning in general language use. Participants who misunderstood terms were no less confident in the accuracy of their understanding than those who understood well. Connotational meaning was assessed using semantic differential and word association techniques. A lack of congruence between lay and health practitioner connotations was found for most target terms; a substantial number of ‘fear’- or ‘sad’-related associations from lay participants contrasted with a near absence of such connotations from healthcare practitioners. Findings reveal routes to improved health communication.
Fitzpatrick et al. (Fri,) studied this question.