向患者传达类似新被诊断为癌症这样的坏消息可能对其幸福感造成重大影响。我们通过系统回顾和荟萃分析研究了与电话和面对面方式传达坏消息对患者心理困扰的差异。我们收集了所有研究，这些研究调查了成年患者中通过电话与面对面方式传达坏消息后的焦虑、抑郁或创伤后应激障碍症状。我们系统地搜索了PubMed、Embase、PsycINFO和CINAHL数据库，时间从每个数据库建立开始至2022年10月18日。我们纳入了随机和非随机试验。我们筛选了5944个研究，包括11个研究在定性分析中，9个研究在荟萃分析中，其中包括4个随机对照试验。总体而言，研究的质量中等至良好。无论是通过电话还是面对面方式传达坏消息，心理困扰的程度并无差异，焦虑症状水平相似（3个研究，285名参与者；标准化均数差异[SMD] 0.10 [95% CI -0.15 to 0.35]），抑郁症状（3个研究，284名参与者；SMD 0.10 [95% CI -0.30 to 0.49]）和创伤后应激障碍（2个研究，171名参与者；SMD -0.01 [95% CI -0.48 to 0.36]）。满意度方面的结果也相似。这项荟萃分析发现，无论是通过电话还是面对面方式传达坏消息，心理困扰并无差异，但是研究数量较少且差异较大，并涉及可纳入分析的患者数量较少。研究结果表明，传达方式可能起到次要作用，而如何传达坏消息可能更为重要。 © 2023. 作者。

Communicating bad news such as a new cancer diagnosis to patients may have a major impact on their well-being. We investigated differences in patients' psychological distress due to the disclosure of bad news by telephone compared to in person in a systematic review and meta-analysis.We included all studies that investigated anxiety, depressive or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in adult patients in whom bad news by telephone compared to in person were disclosed. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL from the inception of each database to October 18, 2022. We included randomized and non-randomized trials.We screened 5944 studies and included 11 studies in the qualitative analysis and 9 in the meta-analyses, including four randomized controlled trials. Overall, the quality of studies was moderate to good. There was no difference regarding psychological distress when bad news was disclosed by telephone compared to in person with similar symptom levels of anxiety (3 studies, 285 participants; standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.10 [95% CI -0.15 to 0.35]), depression (3 studies, 284 participants; SMD 0.10 [95% CI -0.30 to 0.49]), and PTSD (2 studies, 171 participants; SMD -0.01 [95% CI -0.48 to 0.36]). Results were similar for satisfaction with care.This meta-analysis found no difference regarding psychological distress regardless if bad news were disclosed by telephone or in person, but there were overall only few and heterogeneous studies with a small number of eligible patients. The findings suggest that the modality of disclosure might play a secondary role and the way in which the bad news are communicated might be more important.© 2023. The Author(s).