Abstract
With a rapidly ageing population in Singapore, older adults and their family members face challenges of age-related diseases, caregiver stress, and increasing demand for caregiving services. To address this pressing issue, this pilot study aims to introduce online health coaching for older adults in Singapore and evaluate its effectiveness on maintenance of personal healthcare. In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, older adults’ activities were largely restricted by measures on social distancing. The online health coaching provided a solution for older adults to achieve a healthy lifestyle in a contactless manner. In this pilot study, 18 older adults (≥55 years old) who were willing to be coached by trained health coaches (n = 10) for 8 weeks (once a week) were recruited. Pre- and post-surveys with older adults were conducted. Furthermore, health coaching booklet was used to control the quality of coaching and to record diet and exercise plans. The pilot study demonstrated that the health coaching provided older adults with knowledge of nutrition and exercise, raised their awareness of well-being in terms of daily meals and regular exercise, and provided an alternative to maintain a healthy lifestyle amidst global pandemic. Additionally, we also identified that the older adults’ satisfactions with health coaching were positively associated with educational levels (R2 = 0.31). Lastly, this pilot study highlighted that health coaching standardization process for older adults is critical for researchers and healthcare practitioners in the future.
Highlights
Health coaching is defined as assisting patients to gain knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to become active participants in their personal care to achieve self-identified goals [1]
The pilot study demonstrated that the health coaching provided older adults with knowledge of nutrition and exercise, raised their awareness of well-being in terms of daily meals and regular exercise, and provided an alternative to maintain a healthy lifestyle amidst global pandemic
Based on the high averaged means observed in the contentment of health-coaching scale, it was evident that participants generally enjoyed the health coaching programme
Summary
Health coaching is defined as assisting patients to gain knowledge, skills, tools and confidence to become active participants in their personal care to achieve self-identified goals [1]. It intends to encourage and educate individuals to develop good health-maintaining, lifestyle habits, and improve their overall physical and mental well-being by building a collaborative relationship between a health coach and a client [2]. Compared to healthcare professionals that may differ between visits, health coaches are tagged to the patients they are able to build rapport and develop a deeper understanding of the patient’s needs [4]. The primary motivations included 1) the inability of primary care physicians to meet the need of every patient, 2) the lack of patient understanding of physician instructions, 3) the lack of patient participation in shared decision-making, and 4) lower rates of medication adherence and lifestyle changes [7] [8] [9] [10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
