The Impact of Medical Terminology in Self-Triage Decision-Making

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined whether medical terminology impacts self-triage decisions (deciding if and when to seek medical treatment) compared to lay terminology.Methods: Undergraduate psychology student participants read 32 hypothetical health scenarios and reported how urgently they would seek care ["In this situation, when would you seek medical attention?" presented along with a seven-point scale, with anchors at either extreme: "Never (At the next scheduled appointment, if at all)" and "As soon as possible (Within the hour)," reflecting the options coded as 1 and 7, respectively]. Data were collected in person via a paper-based questionnaire. Scenarios included a description of symptoms, which were labeled as consistent with a particular medical disorder using either a lay disease label (e.g. "Heart Attack") or medical terminology (e.g. "Myocardial Infarction"). The 32 health scenarios represented medical disorders that purposefully reflected a spectrum of severity, commonality, and how recently the medical terminology had entered common use. results: For disorders for which medical terminology has been more recently established, participants reported that they would seek care more urgently when the disorder was presented using a medical label [mean (SE) = 4.08 (0.23)] than when they were described using the lay disease labels [3.32 (0.23), t(35) = 5.36, p < 0.001, e.g., "seborrheic dermatitis" versus "chronic dandruff"]. However, this differential response to medical or lay disease labels was not observed for disorders for which medical terminology has been more well established [medical labels = 5.16 (0.18); lay labels = 4.89 (0.18), t(35) = −1.67, p = 0.104, e.g., "heart attack" and "myocardial infarction"].conclusion: These results indicate that self-triage decision-making can be readily influenced by the terminology used to identify a disorder; however, this phenomenon appears to be particularly relevant for disorders in which public opinion may still be in flux.