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Evaluation of teach-back and plain language acceptability during patient interactions
Andressa A Sleiman1, Erin M Richard2, Daniel Gonzales-Portillo3
1School of Behavior Analysis, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, USA.
Objective:
This research investigated participants' acceptability of clinicians' use of teach-back and plain language.
Methods:
A 30-min survey was administered to 162 undergraduates who watched and rated two doctor-patient interactions explaining multiple sclerosis and diabetes.Interactions included jargon only, jargon+teach-back, plain language only, and plain language+teach-back.
Results:
The results indicated a significant preference for plain language over jargon in both multiple sclerosis [F(1, 157) = 57.73, p < . 001, hp2 = 0.27] and diabetes [F(1, 157) = 63.42, p < .001, hp2 = 0.29]. Teach-back was favored over no teach-back for multiple sclerosis [F(1, 157) = 8.99, p < .01, hp2 = 0.05] but not for diabetes [F(1, 157) = 1.05, n.s.]. Participants reported being more familiar with the diabetes diagnosis.
Conclusion:
Clinicians should avoid excessive jargon and actively engage patients by employing teach-back questions, especially when discussing unfamiliar information.
Innovation:
This study advances clinician-patient communication by examining the acceptability of teach-back rather than its effectiveness, addressing a key gap in understanding when such strategies are likely to be adopted in practice. Findings challenge assumptions that teach-back inherently ensures comprehension, emphasizing the necessity of plain-language delivery and offering a replicable framework for evaluating patient acceptability in real-world contexts.
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