TABLE 1.
Socio-demographic characteristics and professional experience of questionnaire respondents, and languages interpreted by training session participants.
| Demographic variables | Training session participants N (%) | Questionnaire respondents | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre N (%) | Post N (%) | 6-months follow-up N (%) | ||
| Age | N = 33 | N = 43 | N = 22 | |
| 25–44 | — | 10 (30.4) | 13 (30.2) | 7 (31.8) |
| 45–64 | — | 19 (57.6) | 21 (48.8) | 8 (36.3) |
| 65 plus | — | 4 (12.1) | 9 (20.9) | 7 (31.8) |
| Gender | N = 33 | N = 43 | N = 22 | |
| Female | — | 30 (90.9) | 39 (90.7) | 16 (72.7) |
| Number of years working as a Health Interpreter | N = 33 | N = 43 | N = 22 | |
| Not a Health Interpreter | — | 5 (15.2) | 3 (7.0) | 3 (13.6) |
| 0–5 years | — | 10 (30.3) | 13 (30.2) | 8 (36.3) |
| 6 years or more | — | 18 (54.5) | 27 (62.8) | 11 (50.0) |
| Before the training session, did you have any training in genetics? | N = 33 | N = 43 | N = 22 | |
| None at all | — | 19 (57.6) | 25 (58.1) | 17 (77.3) |
| Some in high school or university | — | 10 (30.3) | 13 (30.2) | 3 (13.6) |
| Professional development or continued education | — | 4 (12.1) | 5 (11.6) | 2 (9.1) |
| What language(s) are you qualified to interpret? † | N = 122 | N = 34 | N = 44 | N = 23 |
| Asian language | 73 (59.8) | 18 (52.9) | 25 (56.8) | 14 (60.9) |
| European language | 23 (18.9) | 8 (23.5) | 10 (22.7) | 5 (21.7) |
| Other | 25 (20.5) | 7 (20.9) | 9 (20.5) | 4 (17.3) |
| African language | 7 (5.7) | 4 (11.8) | 4 (9.1) | 1 (4.3) |
| Middle-Eastern language | 15 (12.3) | 2 (5.9) | 4 (9.1) | 3 (13.0) |
| Oceanian language | 3 (2.5) | 1 (2.9) | 1 (2.3) | 0 |
| No response | 1 (0.8) | 1 (2.9) | 0 | 0 |
| Professional experience | N = 33 | N = 43 | N = 22 | |
| Have you interpreted for a specialist genetic clinician (clinical geneticist or genetic counsellor)?—Yes | — | 9 (27.3) | 12 (27.9) | 7 (31.8) |
| Have you interpreted genetic or genomic terms for a health service client before who was not a specialist genetic clinician (clinical geneticist or genetic counsellor)?—Yes | — | 4 (12.1) | 13 (30.2) | 6 (27.3) |
| Have you had personal experience outside your professional role (e.g. you, a friend or family member) with a serious genetic condition?—Yes | — | 6 (18.2) | 15 (34.9) | 5 (22.7) |
| Since completing the training session, have you had a client appointment where you interpreted genetics terms?—Yes | — | — | — | 4 (18.2) |
| Since completing the training session, have you participated in any additional learning about genetics and genomics? | N = 22 | |||
| Yes | — | — | — | 13 (59.1) |
| Materials provided from the training session | — | — | — | 8 (36.4) |
| Other materials not provided in the training session | — | — | — | 1 (4.5) |
| Both materials provided from the training session and materials not provided in the training session | — | — | — | 4 (18.2) |
| Since completing the training session, in how many appointments have you interpreted genetic terms? | N = 4 | |||
| 1 to 3 | — | — | — | 2 (50.0) |
| 4 to 6 | — | — | — | 1 (25.0) |
| 6 or more | — | — | — | 1 (25.0) |
†
Some training session attendees and questionnaire respondents interpreted for multiple languages from multiple regions. The percentage is based on the number of languages by region spoken by participants, not the number of participants.