非洲语言中的癌症护理术语

在医疗环境中，患者与医疗团队之间的有效沟通对于提供最佳癌症护理和提高癌症认知至关重要。尽管人们普遍认识到沟通在医疗中的重要性，但在非洲背景下这一话题仍缺乏深入研究。旨在评估癌症和肿瘤学相关医学术语在非洲语言中的翻译及其在文化背景中的意义。在非洲多国进行的一项调查研究中，涉及癌症护理和研究的医疗专业人员、社区卫生工作者、研究人员、科学家以及传统治疗师被邀请通过网络平台自愿参与问卷调查。调查提供了16个用于癌症诊断和治疗的癌症及肿瘤学术语（如癌症、放疗），参与者被要求用当地语言表达这些术语（若存在对应词），并提供其英文直译或意译。问卷开放时间为2023年2月至4月。采用主题分析法识别不同语言中反复出现的意义模式，将16个英文翻译术语归类为五个主题（中性、负面、正面、音译或借词、未知）。共收集107份回应（响应率未知，因采用广泛分布策略），涵盖来自32个国家的44种非洲语言，大部分参与者（63人[59%]）年龄在18至40岁之间，女性占比50%（54人）。癌症的翻译大致归类为音译或借词（34人[32%]）、未知（30人[28%]）、中性（24人[22%]）和负面（19人[18%]），后者包括普遍的恐惧、悲剧、不可治愈和致命的联想。在“恶性”、“慢性”和“放疗”等术语的翻译中，也发现了类似的恐惧或悲剧的元素。放疗的负面联想尤为明显（24人[22%]），多描述为被火烧、燃烧、热或电击，可能阻碍患者接受治疗。本研究结果显示，非洲语言中癌症和肿瘤学术语的翻译可能加剧恐惧、导致健康差异、增加护理障碍，影响医疗人员的沟通效率。因此，强调需开发具有文化敏感性的癌症术语，以促进癌症认知和沟通的改善。

Effective communication between patients and health care teams is essential in the health care setting for delivering optimal cancer care and increasing cancer awareness. While the significance of communication in health care is widely acknowledged, the topic is largely understudied within African settings.To assess how the medical language of cancer and oncology translates into African languages and what these translations mean within their cultural context.In this multinational survey study in Africa, health professionals, community health workers, researchers, and scientists involved in cancer care and research and traditional healers were invited to participate in an online survey on a voluntary basis through online platforms. The survey provided 16 cancer and oncologic terms used in cancer diagnosis and treatment (eg, cancer, radiotherapy) to participants, mostly health care workers, who were asked to provide these terms in their local languages (if the terms existed) followed by a direct or close translation of the meaning in English. The survey was open from February to April 2023.Patterns of meaning that recurred across languages were identified using thematic analysis of 16 English-translated terms categorized into 5 themes (neutral, negative, positive, phonetic or borrowed, and unknown).A total of 107 responses (response rate was unavailable given the open and widespread distribution strategy) were collected from 32 countries spanning 44 African languages, with most participants (63 [59%]) aged 18 to 40 years; 54 (50%) were female. Translations for cancer were classified as phonetic or borrowed (34 [32%]), unknown (30 [28%]), neutral (24 [22%]), and negative (19 [18%]), with the latter category including universal connotations of fear, tragedy, incurability, and fatality. Similar elements connoting fear or tragedy were found in translations of terms such as malignant, chronic, and radiotherapy. The term radiotherapy yielded a high percentage of negative connotations (24 [22%]), with a prevailing theme of describing the treatment as being burned or burning with fire, heat, or electricity, which may potentially hinder treatment.In this survey study of cancer communication and the translation of oncology terminology in African languages, the findings suggest that the terminology may contribute to fear, health disparities, and barriers to care and pose communication difficulties for health professionals. The results reinforce the need for culturally sensitive cancer terminology for improving cancer awareness and communication.