A systematic review of standardized instruments to measure the doctor-patient relationship

Abstract

The current health situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a reconfiguration of the doctor-patient relationship. We performed a systematic review to comparatively evaluate the instruments most used to study communication in the doctor-patient relationship. We identified 43 instruments assessing different aspects of the doctor-patient relationship, of which 34 correspond to Anglo-Saxon literature and nine to Latin American texts. The psychometric evidence for many of these instruments is incipient. Most of these instruments contemplate a unidirectional design and address similar dimensions of the doctor-patient relationship, particularly in the Latin American context where the relationship is mostly studied in a unidimensional way. We propose recommendations for the development, revision, or refinement of instruments that measure communication in the doctor-patient relationship.