Assessing Language Difficulties in Health Facilities in Malawi

Abstract Language barriers in healthcare, prevalent globally, often lead to miscommunication between professionals and patients, reducing the quality of care. Recognition, training, and formal study of these barriers during medical communication in African countries is severely limited. Our study focused on language barriers in healthcare facilities in Zomba, an important district in Malawi where several local languages are spoken. We employed a qualitative approach and conducted a questionnaire-based study. Data was gathered from 79 healthcare professionals and 312 patients. Our findings show that a lack of language preparation during health training and the absence of suitable resources in local languages, such as dictionaries, result in healthcare professionals struggling to communicate with patients in both English and local languages about medical issues. Patients also face difficulties in fully conveying their symptoms and understanding their diagnoses or treatments due to language barriers. We conclude that language training and health dictionaries in both English and local languages can help address some of these observed language barriers.