The impact of health and wellness coaching on patient-important outcomes in chronic illness care: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

BackgroundHealth and Wellness Coaching (HWC) may be beneficial in chronic condition care. We sought to appraise its effectiveness on quality of life (QoL), self-efficacy (SE), depression, and anxiety. MethodsWe searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane CENTRAL for randomized trials published January 2005 - March 2023 that compared HWC to standard clinical care or another intervention without coaching. We examined QoL, SE, depression, or anxiety outcomes. Meta-analysis utilizing the random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled standardized mean difference (SMD). ResultsThirty included studies demonstrated that HWC improved QoL within 3 months (SMD 0.62 95 % CI 0.22–1.02, p = 0.002), SE within 1.5 months (SMD 0.38, 95 % CI 0.03–0.73, p = 0.03), and depression at 3, 6, and 12 months (SMD 0.67, 95 % CI 0.13–1.20, p = 0.01), (SMD 0.72, 95 % CI 0.19–1.24, p = 0.006), and (SMD 0.41, 95 % CI 0.09–0.73, p = 0.01) Certainty in the evidence for most outcomes was either very low or low primarily due to the high risk of bias, heterogeneity, and imprecision. ConclusionHWC improves QoL, SE, and depression across chronic illness populations. Future research needs to standardize intervention reporting and outcome collection. Practice ImplicationsFuture HWC studies should standardize intervention components, reporting, and outcome measures, apply relevant chronic illness theories, and aim to follow participants for greater than one year.