A Study for Building a System of Consumer Vocabulary for Health Information

Yoonju Shin; Jeongeun Kim

doi:10.4258/jksmi.2009.15.1.31

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Shin and Kim: A Study for Building a System of Consumer Vocabulary for Health Information

Original Article

Journal of Korean Society of Medical Informatics

Journal of Korean Society of Medical Informatics 2009; 15(1): 31-40.

Published online: 31 March 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4258/jksmi.2009.15.1.31

A Study for Building a System of Consumer Vocabulary for Health Information

Yoonju Shin¹, Jeongeun Kim^1,²

¹College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Korea.

²Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University, Korea.

Corresponding author (kim0424@snu.ac.kr)

Received 9 October 2008 Accepted 11 February 2009

Abstract

Objectives

The purposes of this study were to identify the difference between consumer vocabulary and medical vocabulary in terms of health information; to understand the features of consumer vocabulary; and to contribute by building a system that is able to link consumer vocabulary with medical vocabulary.

Methods

Data collection was conducted using articles in the knowledge corner of a portal web-site. A total of 43,304 health-related terms (total terms extracted) were collected as objects of this study and these terms were analyzed for their mapping rate and frequency of use (the repeated number of a term).

Results

The rate of mapping between the consumer vocabulary for health information and the medical vocabulary was not high. However, the number of "unmapped terms" was decreased by linking terms having similar forms to "preferred terms" and by extending synonyms.

Conclusion

Linking with preferred terms and extending synonyms are, thus, required to increase the mapping rate between consumer vocabulary for health information and medical vocabulary, and the terms that consumers use are essential to further be researched in order to understand their morphology and features; hence, increasing consumer accessibility to the medical field.

Keywords: Consumer Vocabulary, Medical Vocabulary, Health Information, Mapping, Preferred Terms, Synonyms

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

Steps for classification of consumer vocabulary and selection of preferred terms

Figure 2

Mapping process between consumer vocabulary and medical vocabulary

Table 1

Definition of terms

Table 2

Criteria for selection of Preferred terms

Table 3

The result of mapping consumer vocabulary and medical vocabulary

Table 4

Comparison with mapping rate of extracted terms and preferred terms

Table 5

Mapping rate of terms by classification of meaning

Table 6

Patterns of consumer vocabulary

Table 7

Analysis of unmapped consumer vocabulary

References

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