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

Background: Health 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. Methods: We 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). Results: Thirty 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. Conclusion: HWC improves QoL, SE, and depression across chronic illness populations. Future research needs to standardize intervention reporting and outcome collection. Practice Implications: Future 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.