Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:40:14.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An investigation of the adequacy of psychiatric interviews conducted through an interpreter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Saeed Farooq ,
Christopher Fear  and
Femi Oyebode
Saeed Farooq
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan
Christopher Fear*
Affiliation:
General Adult Psychiatry, Severn NHS Trust, Wotton Lawn Hospital, Horton Road, Gloucester G1 3PX
Femi Oyebode
Affiliation:
General Adult Psychiatry; Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Mindelsohn Way, Off Vincent Drive, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2QZ
*
∗Correspondence
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We evaluated clinical Information gained directly from 10 English-speaking and from 10 non-English-speaking subjects both directly and through interpreter-mediated Interviews. High levels of agreement between raters, when assessing both cohorts, were found for all data with a non-significant tendency towards better agreement in the Asian than the English-speaking sample for family history data. Analysis of the interview contents showed a number of errors of interpretation which were similar to those noted in previous studies. The addition of quantitative data represents a significant advantage over previous studies, allowing the qualitative results to be placed into perspective. Recommendations are made for optimising and avoiding the pitfalls of interpreter-mediated interviews.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , April 1997 , pp. 209 - 213
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

Bland, I. M. & Amman, D.G. (1986) Statistical methods for assessing agreement between two methods of clinical measurement Lancet, i, 307–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane, R. (1971) Mental illness in immigrants to England and Wales: An analysis of mental hospital admissions. Social Psychiatry, 12, 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Launer, J. (1978) Taking medical histories through interpreters: Practice in a Nigerian out-patient department. British Medical Journal, 2, 934–938.Google Scholar
Leatherdale, B. A., Jhittay, P. & Gill, A. (1978) Communication with Asian patients. British Medical Journal, 2, 1197–1198.Google Scholar
Madhock, R., Bhopal, R. S. & Ramajah, R. S. (1992) Quality of hospital service: A study comparing ‘Asian’ and ‘Non-Asian’ patients in Middlesborough. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 14, 271–279.Google Scholar
Marcos, L. R., Alpet, M., Urcuyo, L., et al (1973) The effect of interview language on the evaluation of psychopathology in Spanish-American schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 549–553.Google Scholar
Sabin, J. E. (1975) Translating despair. American Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 197–199.Google Scholar
Stevens, K. A. & Fletcher, R. F. (1989) Communicating with Asian patients. British Medical Journal, 209, 905–906.Google Scholar
Westermeyer, J. (1989) Psychiatric Care of Immigrants in Washington DC. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.