ReviewThe effects of health coaching on adult patients with chronic diseases: A systematic review
Introduction
Chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases, have a slow progression and last a long time. They account for more than 60% of all deaths in the world, and a large proportion of these deaths are for people under 60 years of age. Moreover, at least 2.8 million people die every year as a result of being overweight or obese. Economic transition, rapid urbanization and poor lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity and the harmful use of alcohol are among the risk factors contributing to the burden of chronic diseases [1].
Individual health care interventions have been demonstrated to have a positive effect and are usually cost-effective or low in cost. When individual interventions are combined population-wide they may save millions of lives and reduce human suffering from chronic diseases [1]. Health coaching is a single patient education method that can sometimes improve the quality, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of chronic disease management [2], [4]. It is a fresh, new approach that is not well defined [3], [4]. According to Palmer et al. [5], “health coaching is the practice of health education and health promotion within a coaching context, to enhance the wellbeing of individuals and to facilitate the achievement of their health-related goals.” It emerged from the motivational interviewing concept originated by Miller and Rollnick [6].
Health coaching is patient-oriented and motivates them to change their behavior. The purpose of health coaching is to motivate patients to achieve goals that enhance the quality of their lives and improve their health. A coach's role is to help patients weigh options, make choices and plan and identify challenges to help them change for the better. The role involves listening, understanding, facilitating, applauding, supporting, motivating and providing feedback to the patients [4].
The aim of this review was to describe the effects of health coaching on adult patients with chronic diseases. The research question was “What are the types of effects of health coaching interventions by health care professionals on adult patients with chronic diseases?”
Section snippets
Searching
This systematic review was conducted following the guidance for systematic reviews in health care [7], [8]. The study protocol was written before starting the selection of the studies and was approved by a review group (M.K., H.K.). Studies published between January 2009 and September 2013 were systematically searched for in the CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus databases. Medical subject headings (MeSH) and other search terms were used to search through the titles, abstracts and the full
General description of studies
Thirteen published studies [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24] (Table 3) described the effects of health coaching on adult patients with chronic diseases. Eight studies came from the United States, two studies came from Thailand, and the other three studies came from Malaysia, Finland and Sweden. All studies were published between 2009 and 2013 and were original, empirical intervention studies. Eleven of the studies were randomized clinical trials [12],
Discussion
This systematic review describes the effects of health coaching on adults with chronic diseases. We reviewed 13 studies [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24] that had been published between January 2009 and September 2013. As chronic diseases increase, the available global health resources are being stretched further. Consequently, it is important to evaluate the effects of different treatment approaches for patients with chronic illnesses and their
Conflict of interest statement
No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of the information specialist Margit Heikkala from the Oulu University Medical Library. No financial support is used for the work.
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