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Cited by 2,430Patient-Provider Communication in HealthcareEmpathy and Medical EducationInterpreting and Communication in Healthcare

Doctor-patient communication: a review of the literature

Ong, L.M.L., de Haes, J.C.J.M., Hoos, A.M., Lammes, F.B.·1995·Social Science & Medicine
DOI 10.1016/0277-9536(94)00155-m
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Abstract

Communication can be seen as the main ingredient in medical care. In reviewing doctor-patient communication, the following topics are addressed: (1) different purposes of medical communication; (2) analysis of doctor-patient communication; (3) specific communicative behaviors; (4) the influence of communicative behaviors on patient outcomes; and (5) concluding remarks. Three different purposes of communication are identified, namely: (a) creating a good inter-personal relationship; (b) exchanging information; and (c) making treatment-related decisions. Communication during medical encounters can be analyzed by using different interaction analysis systems (IAS). These systems differ with regard to their clinical relevance, observational strategy, reliability/validity and channels of communicative behavior. Several communicative behaviors that occur in consultations are discussed: instrumental (cure oriented) vs affective (care oriented) behavior, verbal vs non-verbal behavior, privacy behavior, high vs low controlling behavior, and medical vs everyday language vocabularies. Consequences of specific physician behaviors on certain patient outcomes, namely: satisfaction, compliance/adherence to treatment, recall and understanding of information, and health status/psychiatric morbidity are described. Finally, a framework relating background, process and outcome variables is presented.

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2 of the 105 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Larsen, 1981, Assessment of nonverbal communication in the patient-physican interview, J. Family Practice, 12, 481
  2. Riskó, 1992, Non-verbal communication between cancer patients and “others”, Psycho-Oncol. Lett., 3, 15
  3. Weston, 1989, Patient-centered interviewing Part I: understanding patients' experiences, Can. Family Physician, 35, 147
  4. Roter, 1991, The Roter Method of Interaction Process Analysis, RIAS Manual
  5. Eussen, 1992, Een observatiesysteem voor de analyse van de inhoud van de communicatie tussen kankerpatiënten en specialisten, Gedrag en Gezonheid, 20, 2

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Authors
Ong, L. M. L., de Haes, J. C. J. M., Hoos, A. M., & Lammes, F. B.
Affiliations
Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam (NL)
Venue
Social Science & Medicine
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1995-04
Volume
40
Issue
7
Pages
903-918
ISSN
0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/0277-9536(94)00155-m
OpenAlex
W1967359323
Semantic Scholar
45e23510ca64b41aade0ae069f039d29417fb400
Cited by
2,430
References
105
Citations by year
2026: 56 · 2025: 76 · 2024: 75 · 2023: 75 · 2022: 87 · 2021: 95 · 2020: 118 · 2019: 101 · 2018: 98 · 2017: 115 · 2016: 108 · 2015: 142 · 2014: 99 · 2013: 124 · 2012: 78
FWCI
7.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare
Keywords
physician-patient communication, medical communication, interpersonal relationships, information sharing, treatment decision-making, privacy behavior, controlling behavior, patient satisfaction, medication adherence, psychiatric morbidity
MeSH terms
Communication, Humans, Patient Education as Topic, Physician-Patient Relations, Treatment Outcome

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