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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
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Abstract

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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

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