Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bangladesh:
Way for a Better Access to Health Care
Language of Medicine in
Bangladesh:
MURDHONNO
Badrul Alam
Abu Sayed Hasan
Tajrian Rahman
Published by :
Sanjoy Majumdar
Murdhonno
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Cover Design By:
Kabya Karim
Foreword
Copyright Authors
Dedication
Abba
Amma
Manal &
Mahiar
With Love and
Gratitude
overcome
language
barrier
in
providing
health
services
in
Bangladesh
Chapter-7: Discussion
Chapter-8: Limitations of the study
Chapter-9: Conclusion and Recommendations
Bibliography
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Particulars
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Language of Medicine in Bangladesh | 2
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Terms
Meaning
L1
L2
Code mixing
First language
Second language
Transfer of linguistic elements
from one language to another
Code switching
Use of two languages in
same situation/sentence
Physician
A
physician
is
a
health
professional
who
practices
medicine. Normally a physician is
called as a doctor (or medical
doctor)
Kabiraj
Health service providers who do
not have institutional education
or training and who use raw
trees, tree roots and other
materials for treatment
Mortality
Number of death due to illness
Morbidity
Sufferings and consequences
caused by the diseases
Chapter
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Chapter
1
Executive summary
Bangladesh is a developing country and there
are lot of issues which are obstructing to get a
successful outcome from the health services
providing by the government organisations,
non-government organisations, private clinics
and different kinds of health service providers
including doctors. Surprisingly, to the best of
our knowledge, no researcher ever took
initiatives to address the language and
linguistic issues which is a key factor and
working as a barrier in practice of medicine
and providing health services in Bangladesh.
General thinking: if someone does not know the
language, how can he or she express
something? Whereas, we all know that the
language of medicine is a bit different from the
language we speak in our daily life. In that
case, where the literacy rate in Bangladesh is
only 57.7%, how can we expect that they will
understand the language which is being used
by the doctors, other health professionals and
hospitals? So, there is a definite possibility for
language to act as a barrier to have a
successful outcome of health services in
Bangladesh. Considering all these factors, we
thought, if we could conduct a research study
Language of Medicine in Bangladesh | 1
Chapter
2
Introduction
Chapter
2
INTRODUCTION
Chapter
3
Research Questions and Objectives of
the study
3.1: Research questions
Chapter
3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Chapter
4
Research Methodology
Chapter
Inclusion criteria:
Research Methodology
Able to provide
participation
valid
consent
for
Exclusion criteria:
The following criteria were used to exclude the
respondents from the study:
Chapter
5
Ethical considerations
5.1: Data Safety Monitoring Plan (DSMP)
Chapter
5
Ethical considerations
Chapter
6
Result
Chapter
6
Result
The results of the study have been organised in
five sub-sections: 6.1: Socio-demographics of
the respondents, 6.2: Perceptions of the
respondents on the language of medicine and
health services in Bangladesh, 6.3: Attitudes of
the respondents towards the language of
medicine and health services in Bangladesh,
6.4: If language is a barrier in practice of
medicine and providing health services in
Bangladesh and 6.5: Suggestions from the
participants to overcome language barrier in
providing health services in Bangladesh.
6.1:
Socio-demographics
respondents
of
the
According
to
the
responses
from
the
respondents, Figure 9 illustrates the
languages used in the leaflets or instructions
along with the medicine packs. More than half
of the participants mentioned that both Bengali
and English were used as the language of
instructions accompanied with medicine packs
or boxes. However, 4% of the respondents told
that the language was Bengali and 2% of the
respondents mentioned that most of the
instruction was written both English and
Bengali, although few were written in English
only.
Opinion
The
language
which
is
being
used
The
The
language in
language which
medicine in
is being used to
hospitals
study medicine
in
and
Bangladesh
private
for medicine
practice
and
health
in
English
globally
is
different
of
the
from
general
the doctors,
English we use
services can
is
for
be
appropriate
communication
understood
for
by
people
general
all
the
people
Definitely
8%
8%
20%
54%
42%
64%
20%
32%
14%
18%
18%
0%
True
Probably
True
Probably
False
Definitely
False
Chapter
7
Discussion
Chapter
7
Discussion
This study provided a comprehensive scenario
of the effect of language on the practice of
medicine and providing health services in
Bangladesh. So far, no other study was
conducted in the past in Bangladesh which
explored language and linguistic issues to get a
successful outcome of health services in
Bangladesh. We do believe that the current
study would be a pioneer research to address
language and linguistic issues which is
obstructing the effective health services in
Bangladesh. So, this study will have potential
implications for the improvement of providing
health services linked to language issues. The
investigators believe that this study is a kick
start of language and linguistic research in
Bangladesh in the arena of health research and
it will create a new opportunity of doing further
research in this area. In this discussion section,
several language and linguistic theories will
also be discussed to correlate the findings of
this study, namely Diglossia Theory, Codeswitching Theory, Language Attitude Theory
etc.
Though Bangladesh is a developing country, in
the arena of education it is not that much
Language of Medicine in Bangladesh | 1
Chapter
8
Limitations of the study
Chapter
8
Limitations of the study
Chapter
9
Conclusion and Recommendations
Chapter
9
Conclusion and Recommendations
Bibliography
(2013)