Socio-economic and Demographic Factors Influencing Interpersonal Communication Between Patients and Family Physicians: A Protocol for a Systematic Review

Background Interpersonal communication is an essential aspect of patients’ relationships with their family physicians. It impacts patients’ experiences and the quality of care. Nevertheless, interpersonal communication can be affected by conscious and unconscious biases based on patients’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Evidence synthesis of this aspect of interpersonal communication in primary health care is limited. This systematic review will assess socio-economic and demographic factors influencing interpersonal communication between family physicians and patients living with one or more chronic conditions during clinical encounters. Methods We will perform a systematic review following the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Evidence Synthesis. The population of interest is adults living with at least one chronic condition. We will collect socioeconomic and demographic factors such as gender, sex, race or ethnicity, levels of literacy and/or health knowledge, level of education, and poverty or socioeconomic status, including employment or income level. Any published empirical study reporting aspects of interpersonal communication between patients and their family physicians will be considered. Three databases (Embase, MEDLINE, and Cochrane) will be assessed for eligible studies. Pairs of independent reviewers will select studies, extract data, and conduct bias assessment using MMAT-2018. We anticipate conducting descriptive and content analyses with narrative synthesis. Discussion Findings from this review may guide better communication between primary care physicians and their patients and increase awareness of potential health inequalities pathways in clinical practice. Registration number CRD42023411895 (PROSPERO platform). ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement No funding was received for this study. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data utilized in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.