Older CALD participants and healthcare staff perceived translation technology as having a role in facilitating communication

Description #

In focus group consultations, older people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds and nursing/allied health staff both perceived that mobile translation technology had a role in facilitating everyday healthcare communication. Older participants described it as a way to overcome language barriers with their providers and reduce their reliance on adult children as ad hoc translators.

"Participants in both consultations believed that language translation technology had a role in facilitating communication in healthcare settings." (Panayiotou, 2020, p. 3519)

"The older participants from CALD communities reported that technology could assist them to overcome language communication barriers with their healthcare providers and reduce their dependency on adult children who are often required to translate information" (Panayiotou, 2020, p. 3519)

"Every time I go to hospital I have to bring my daughter. It's difficult to bring my daughter. Technology would be useful in this situation." (Panayiotou, 2020, p. 3519, participant from Chinese community consultation)

Methods Context #

What? #ⓘ

The observable: participants' perceptions of, and attitudes toward, using mobile translation applications for everyday healthcare communication, elicited in focus group discussion.

"The focus groups consisted of short semi-structured questions exploring participants' experiences with mobile translation applications, perceptions of using mobile translation applications in the healthcare setting, and the perceived barriers and facilitators to using mobile translation applications in the healthcare setting." (Panayiotou, 2020, p. 3518)

How? #ⓘ

Focus group discussions with each group, transcribed verbatim and analysed with inductive content analysis; a multi-method consultation design.

"We used inductive content analysis (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008) to analyse the qualitative data from the focus groups and open-ended questions." (Panayiotou, 2020, p. 3519)

Who? #ⓘ

A convenience sample of older Greek and Chinese CALD community members (final n = 12) and nursing/allied health staff (n = 17) recruited in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.

"the final sample size was eight older Chinese and four older Greek participants." (Panayiotou, 2020, p. 3519)

Other Notes #

Qualitative perception finding; no associated figure/table (text-only). This is the paper's headline convergence across both participant groups.

Caveats #

• Small non-representative convenience sample from two migrant communities and sub-acute aged-care staff limits generalizability The perception findings come from a small convenience sample drawn from only two older migrant communities (Greek and Chinese, n = 12), recruited through ethno-specific organisations, plus nursing/allied-health staff (n = 17) working only in sub-acute aged-care settings. The authors note this limits generalisability to other migrant communities and other areas of health care, and that the small samples precluded evaluating differences between cultural groups or professions. Perceptions are therefore contextual to these groups and settings rather than broadly representative.