2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Association between interpreter characteristics and satisfaction with healthcare services among foreign hospital patients in Japan

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	17K08932
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Medical sociology
Research Institution	Tokyo Medical University
Principal Investigator	Yamazaki Yuka 東京医科大学, 医学部, 講師 (80579293)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	平山陽示東京医科大学, 医学部, 臨床教授 (30246285) 山口佳子東京医科大学, 医学部, 臨床講師 (30617634)
Project Period (FY)	2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Keywords	外国人患者 / 言葉の壁 / 医療通訳者 / コミュニケーション / 日本 / 医療機関 / 質問票調査
Outline of Final Research Achievements	There is a growing need for medical interpreters in Japanese medical settings to reduce the language barrier between foreign patients and health professionals. However, Japanese medical interpreters are currently not certified through a national examination. Moreover, it has been unknown whether foreign patients are more likely to be satisfied with medical interpreter skills and medical services through medical interpreters compared with interpretation by friends and colleagues. Therefore, we conducted a questionnaire survey focusing on pairs of foreign patients and interpreters by residential status to investigate if medical interpreters increased foreign patients' satisfaction levels with physician skills, overall medical services, and interpreter skills. As a result, only among foreign resident patients was a high level of satisfaction found with professional medical interpretation services offered in hospitals.
Free Research Field	医学教育学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究は、日本の医療機関における医療通訳者の有効性を検討した初めての研究である。調査時(2019年)、医療通訳者は国家資格でなく、医療知識やスキルは標準化されておらず、本研究でも、医療通訳者か否かは通訳者本人の自己申告であった。しかし、本研究結果は、医療通訳者は医師と主に日本に暮らす外国人患者とのコミュニケーションに役立つことを示唆した。ただし、今回は調査協力者の9割を中国人が占めたことや、患者のみに通訳者のスキルへの満足感を聞いたため、より正確な医療通訳者の有効性を検証するためには、中国語以外の言語を母国語とする患者や、医療従事者の医療通訳者のスキルへの満足感についても調べる必要がある。