Promoting patient participation in healthcare interactions through communication skills training: A systematic review.

The review included 38 articles but only 32 unique interventions, so article counts alone would overstate the number of studies. Twenty-five percent of studies also trained providers, so it is not clear what patient training alone did. Only four studies were conducted outside the United States, and most were in primary care or cancer, so results may not transfer to other settings. Many comparisons had too few studies for statistical testing, so the review could not identify the best training type or delivery method. Satisfaction scores were often already high before training, leaving little room to show improvement. Many studies lacked a clear theoretical framework, making it harder to explain how training changed outcomes.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that patient communication training improves health, wellbeing or satisfaction. The review found more active participation, but most studies of satisfaction, psychosocial outcomes and health or treatment outcomes showed no difference or mixed results.