Triadic Communication in Medical Encounters Including Individuals With Dementia: A Scoping Review

The overall goal of this review was to identify what is known about triadic (clinician-patient-caregiver) communication in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia care settings throughout the care continuum.

Using a structured search, we conducted a systematic scoping review of relevant published journal articles across 5 databases. Study titles/abstracts and selected full-text articles were screened by 2 investigators in Covidence systematic review software. Articles were excluded if they were not about clinical communication, focused only on caregiver-patient communication or communication in residential care, were interventional, lacked empirical data, or were not in English. Extracted data were documented using Google Forms.

The study team screened 3426 article titles and abstracts and 112 full-text articles. Forty-four articles were included in the final review. Results were categorized by 3 communication scenarios: diagnostic communication (n=22), general communication (n=16), and advanced care planning communication (n=6).

Across the included articles, the conceptualization and assessment of communication lacked homogeneity. Future directions include addressing these research gaps, establishing recommendations for clinicians to effectively communicate with individuals with dementia and caregivers, and creating and testing communication skills trainings for caregivers/family members, clinicians, and/or individuals with dementia to facilitate effective communication.