The effect of varying practitioner communication on patients' health status and treatment outcomes (Protocol).

This is the protocol for a review .The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of interventions in which healthcare practitioner communication in face-to-face consultations with patients is experimentally varied in comparison to usual care or contrasted active control interventions, on patient health and treatment outcomes. A secondary aim is to investigate if the intervention effect is modified by intervention type, type of illness, length of follow-up, type of outcome and the way the subjects are exposed to communication in studies (real versus simulated).