Table 5 Criteria in measuring the physician’s communication behaviour

Cognitive

• Verbal skills

◦ Clarity of physician’s explanations and, in turn, patient’s understanding [32, 36, 166, 173]

◦ Use of jargon [6, 36, 142, 145]

◦ Encouraging questions [6, 36, 142]

• Non-verbal skills

◦ Non-verbal cues [9, 32, 137, 138, 145, 162, 171, 173]

◦ Listening skills [9, 32, 138, 171, 173]

• Overall efficacy

◦ Addressing issues, concerns, barriers, and facilitators to medication taking [32, 138, 140, 173]

◦ Patient education competency [155]

◦ Time management [145]

◦ Patient centeredness [32, 37, 102, 104, 118, 171, 175]

◦ Ensuring adequate support [34, 142]

◦ Planning [32, 142, 175]

Affective

• Patient specific

◦ Satisfaction with the consultation [34, 111, 120, 152, 153, 160, 173, 174]

◦ Patient distress [118]

◦ Complaints against the doctor [138]

• Physician-patient relationship

◦ Patient’s perceptions of the relationship [143, 152, 155, 173]

◦ Rapport building [22, 35, 104, 162]

Physician attributes

• Professionalism [32, 138, 145, 173, 190,191,192,193, 195]

• Physical examination [138, 173, 196,197,198]

• Empathy [33, 34, 112, 138, 141, 171, 196]

• Compassion [102, 141, 145]

• Respect [32, 138, 171, 173]

• Individualised attention [32, 138, 173]