Audio-taping the oncology treatment consultation: a literature review

An increased amount of research has been conducted to evaluate intervention s for improving the quality of communication between cancer patients and he alth care providers. One of these interventions involves providing patients with audiotapes of their consultations with oncologists. Given that effect ive patient-physician communication has been linked to beneficial health ou tcomes, an examination of studies that have evaluated the effects of audiot ape provision appears warranted. This article provides a critical review of this literature. The audiotape intervention has been examined in uncontrol led studies and randomized trials, and the primacy outcome variables have i ncluded psychological well-being, information recall, and patient satisfact ion. The empirical literature is unclear as to the efficacy of providing pa tients with taped recordings of cancer consultations. Overall, the findings suggest that the majority of patients benefit from receiving the audiotape , but the utility of this intervention in improving patient-physician commu nication requires further examination. Replication studies and well-control led experimental designs applied to a variety of health care providers in d iverse oncology settings are needed to confirm the validity of the empirica l findings to date, and to facilitate further development of interventions aimed at enhancing patient-physician communication. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scien ce Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.