[Influence of the companion in Primary Care consultations on communication skills and interview time].

Objetives: To know the influence of the companion in triadic clinical encounter on the quality of doctor-patient communication and the duration of the interview.

Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study.

Location: 10 Primary Care Centers.

Participants: Resident doctors of Family and Community Medicine.

Interventions: Peer review of video recordings of clinical demand consultations.

Main Measurements: CICAA-2 questionnaire to assess communication skills (improvable, acceptable or adequate); age and sex, reasons for consultation and duration of the interview. Bivariate and multivariate analyses. Ethical authorization, oral informed consent and custody of the video recordings.

Results: 73 RD (53.8% women, 32.9±7.7 years) participated with 260 interviews (60.3% women and 2.1±1.0 clinical demands). 27.7% of consultations with a companion (female sex 65.3%). The mean duration of the interviews was 8.5±4.0min. Clinical encounters lasted longer when a companion attended (2.7±0.5min more; p<.001 Student t) and with a greater number of clinical demands (40% with ≥3 reasons, p=0.048 X). The mean value of the total score of the CICAA-2 scale (46.9±16.5; difference 4.6±2.3) and Task 2 (39.3±15.8 with difference 4.4±2.2) were higher when companion was present (p<.05 Student t). The model obtained with logistic regression shows a longer duration of the consultation with a companion (OR 1.2; CI [1.1-1.3]) and possibly a better score in Task 2 communication skills (OR 1.02; CI [0.99-1.1]).

Conclusions: Triadic communications challenge the clinician's communication skills, improving their abilities to identify and understand patient problems, albeit at the cost of a greater investment of time.