Socioeconomic and demographic factors influencing interpersonal communication between patients with chronic conditions and family physicians: A systematic review

Objective: This systematic review assessed the socioeconomic and demographic factors influencing interpersonal communication between family physicians and patients with chronic diseases.

Methods: We searched three databases (Embase, MEDLINE, and Cochrane) for published empirical studies reporting interpersonal communication between adults with chronic conditions and their family physicians. Gender, sex, race or ethnicity, low levels of literacy and/or health knowledge, and lower level of education or income were the factors of interest. Pairs of independent reviewers selected studies, extracted data, and appraised quality of the studies using MMAT-2018. We conducted descriptive and content analyses with a narrative synthesis.

Results: From 7579 identified deduped studies, we included 12 with a total of 22266 participants. Suboptimal interpersonal communication in several domains was more incident amongst ethnic minorities (p < 0.01) and individuals with lower language proficiency (p < 0.05).

Discussion and conclusion: Studies used sex and gender interchangeably. The classifications of racial and ethnic origin, income, and education levels were inconsistent. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic and demographic factors can affect deleteriously in-encounter interpersonal communication.

Practice implications: This review might help guide a communication curriculum for medical students and increase awareness of potential health inequalities pathways in clinical practice.

Registration number: CRD42023411895 (PROSPERO platform).