TY - JOUR
T1 - Linguistic and cultural challenges in communication and translation in ussponsored HIV Prevention research in emerging economies
AU - Hanrahan, Donna
AU - Sexton, Patrina
AU - Hui, Katrina
AU - Teitcher, Jennifer
AU - Sugarman, Jeremy
AU - London, Alex John
AU - Barnes, Mark
AU - Purpura, James
AU - Klitzman, Robert
N1 - Funding Information:
We conducted in-depth interviews with researchers and REC members concerning ethical reviews of research protocols in the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), a global network funded by the US National Institutes of Health. In these interviews, problems with translating study materials often arose as major concerns. This paper thus presents these data, exploring the specific challenges these researchers and REC members confront concerning translation and how they have sought to address these difficulties.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Hanrahan et al.
PY - 2015/7/30
Y1 - 2015/7/30
N2 - Linguistic and cultural differences can impede comprehension among potential research participants during the informed consent process, but how researchers and IRBs respond to these challenges in practice is unclear. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 researchers, research ethics committee (REC) chairs and members from 8 different countries with emerging economies, involved in HIV-related research sponsored by HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), regarding the ethical and regulatory challenges they face in this regard. In the interviews, problems with translating study materials often arose as major concerns. Four sets of challenges were identified concerning linguistic and cultural translations of informed consent documents and other study materials, related to the: (1) context, (2) process, (3) content and (4) translation of these documents. Host country contextual issues included low literacy rates, education (e.g., documents may need to be written below 5th grade reading level), and experiences with research, and different views of written documentation. Certain terms and concepts may not exist in other languages, or have additional connotations that back translations do not always reveal. Challenges arise because of not only the content of word-for-word, literal translation, but the linguistic form of the language, such as tone (e.g., appropriate forms of politeness vs. legalese, seen as harsh), syntax, manner of questions posed, and the concept of the consent); and the contexts of use affect meaning. Problems also emerged in bilateral communications - US IRBs may misunderstand local practices, or communicate insufficiently the reasons for their decisions to foreign RECs. In sum, these data highlight several challenges that have received little, if any, attention in past literature on translation of informed consent and study materials, and have crucial implications for improving practice, education, research and policy, suggesting several strategies, including needs for broader open-source multilingual lexicons, and more awareness of the complexities involved.
AB - Linguistic and cultural differences can impede comprehension among potential research participants during the informed consent process, but how researchers and IRBs respond to these challenges in practice is unclear. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 researchers, research ethics committee (REC) chairs and members from 8 different countries with emerging economies, involved in HIV-related research sponsored by HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), regarding the ethical and regulatory challenges they face in this regard. In the interviews, problems with translating study materials often arose as major concerns. Four sets of challenges were identified concerning linguistic and cultural translations of informed consent documents and other study materials, related to the: (1) context, (2) process, (3) content and (4) translation of these documents. Host country contextual issues included low literacy rates, education (e.g., documents may need to be written below 5th grade reading level), and experiences with research, and different views of written documentation. Certain terms and concepts may not exist in other languages, or have additional connotations that back translations do not always reveal. Challenges arise because of not only the content of word-for-word, literal translation, but the linguistic form of the language, such as tone (e.g., appropriate forms of politeness vs. legalese, seen as harsh), syntax, manner of questions posed, and the concept of the consent); and the contexts of use affect meaning. Problems also emerged in bilateral communications - US IRBs may misunderstand local practices, or communicate insufficiently the reasons for their decisions to foreign RECs. In sum, these data highlight several challenges that have received little, if any, attention in past literature on translation of informed consent and study materials, and have crucial implications for improving practice, education, research and policy, suggesting several strategies, including needs for broader open-source multilingual lexicons, and more awareness of the complexities involved.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941978685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84941978685&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0133394
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0133394
M3 - Article
C2 - 26225759
AN - SCOPUS:84941978685
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 10
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 7
M1 - e0133394
ER -