PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Svyntozelska, Olha AU - Espinoza, Nataly AU - LeBlanc, Annie AU - Demers, Juliette TI - Characteristics of Patients with Chronic Conditions Affecting Communication with Family Physicians: A Systematic Review AID - 10.1370/afm.22.s1.6908 DP - 2024 Nov 20 TA - The Annals of Family Medicine PG - 6908 VI - 22 IP - Supplement 1 4099 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/22/Supplement_1/6908.short 4100 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/22/Supplement_1/6908.full SO - Ann Fam Med2024 Nov 20; 22 AB - Context: Interpersonal communication is a critical dimension of primary care. None of the existing reviews examine primary care-specific interpersonal communication for patients living with chronic conditions.Objective: To assess the socioeconomic and demographic factors influencing interpersonal communication between family physicians and patients with chronic conditions.Study Design: Systematic review.Dataset: Following the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcomes (PICO) approach in establishing our eligibility criteria, we searched three databases (Embase, MEDLINE, and Cochrane) from their respective inceptions to November of 2022 for published empirical studies.Population Studied: We included studies reporting interpersonal communication between adults (≥18 years) with at least one chronic condition and their family physicians.Intervention: Exposures of interest included being socially vulnerable due to at least one of the following: (i) poverty or lower socioeconomic status; (ii) ethnic or socio-cultural background; (iii) gender or sex; (iv) lower level of education (no university degree); (v) low levels of literacy and/or health knowledge.Outcome Measures: Outcomes of interest included interpersonal communication in the form of its domains (relationship fostering, self-management enabling, information exchange and decision making, uncertainty management or responding to emotions) or general measures.Results: From 7579 identified deduped studies, we included 12 with 22266 participants. Gender, race, and ethnicity were the factors most studied, contrary to sex, which was not explored in any eligible study. Suboptimal interpersonal communication in several domains was more incident amongst ethnic minorities (p<0.01) and individuals with decreased language proficiency (p<0.05). Meanwhile, gender and income had no impact on interpersonal communication as per the included studies.Conclusion: Despite retrieving studies corresponding to almost all socioeconomic and demographic factors of interest, the number of studies specific to patients with chronic conditions was limited. However, our findings suggest that socioeconomic and demographic factors can affect deleteriously in-encounter interpersonal communication.