Medical information tailoring in somatic care consultations: A scoping review

Clinicians are recommended to tailor medical information to match patients' diverse information needs and abilities to process and understand information. However, there is little and fragmented insight on the meaning, guiding theories, and practices of tailoring information to individual patients.

Provide a comprehensive literature overview on definitions and/or synonyms, theoretical models, and observed, reported, and recommended practices for tailoring information to patients in somatic care consultations.

This scoping review searched Medline, Web of Science, and PsycInfo for studies combining terms for "tailoring", "consultation", "communication", "education", and "clinician". Empirical or discussion articles published in peer-reviewed journals were included, involving clinicians interacting with patients with somatic complaints. Two researchers independently screened articles extracted relevant information and performed a qualitative content analysis.

In total, 4551 articles were screened and twenty-seven met the inclusion criteria. Among the included articles, one direct definition and two synonyms of information tailoring in clinical consultations were found. Multiple theoretical models were discussed, underlying how tailoring of information may work. Information tailoring practices - reported, observed or recommended - included what, how and when to provide information. These tailoring practices were guided by patient information needs and abilities to process and understand information that were (1) explicitly revealed by the patient, or (2) derived from patient characteristics.

Findings may inform future research and interventions on medical information tailoring.

Clinicians are advised to verify patients' information needs and abilities to tailor information, preventing tailoring based on assumptions.