Culture and ethnicity are often cited as barriers to creating effective and satisfying doctor-patient relationships. The aim of this article is to gain more insight into the problems of intercultural medical communication by reviewing observational studies on intercultural doctor-patient communication. In addition, a research model for studying this topic in future research is proposed. A literature review was conducted using online databases (Pubmed, Psychlit). Findings reveal large differences in doctor-patient communication due to patients' ethnicity. Doctors behave less affectively when interacting with ethnic minority patients compared to Caucasian patients. Ethnic minority patients themselves are also less verbally expressive; they appear to be less assertive and affective during a medical encounter than Caucasian patients. Most of the studies reviewed did not relate communication behaviour to possible antecedent culture-related variables, nor did they assess the impact of cultural differences in doctor-patient communication on outcomes, leaving us in the dark as to the causes and consequences of differences in cross-cultural medical communication. Five key predictors of culture-related communication problems have been identified in the literature: (1) cultural differences in explanatory models of health and illness; (2) differences in cultural values; (3) cultural differences in patient preferences for the doctor-patient relationship; (4) racism/perceptual biases; (5) language barriers. It was concluded that by including these variables in the research model, future research on this topic could be strengthened, both from a theoretical and methodological perspective.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0738399111002412