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. 2017 May 19;12(6):436-447.
doi: 10.1177/1559827617708562. eCollection 2018 Nov-Dec.

Compendium of the Health and Wellness Coaching Literature

Gary A Sforzo  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Miranda P Kaye  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Irina Todorova  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Sebastian Harenberg  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Kyle Costello  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Laura Cobus-Kuo  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Aubrey Faber  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Elizabeth Frates  1   2   3   4   5   6 , Margaret Moore  1   2   3   4   5   6
Affiliations

Compendium of the Health and Wellness Coaching Literature

Gary A Sforzo et al. Am J Lifestyle Med. .

Abstract

Health and wellness coaching (HWC) for lifestyle behavior change is emerging as a practice, role, and profession, in diverse health care, employee wellness, and community settings. Health care professionals apply HWC as a behavior change methodology for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic disorders. The purpose of this systematic review was to provide a comprehensive and organized compendium of HWC literature. To date, extant HWC literature remains scattered with no meaningful summary accessible. Lack of comprehensive summary stems from lack of consensus on HWC definition and standards. We applied a recently proposed, standardized definition of HWC to determine compendium inclusion criteria for peer-reviewed, data-based literature from relevant search engines (ie, PubMed, PsychInfo, and CINAHL). A systematic review process was executed and ultimately yielded 219 articles meeting HWC inclusion criteria. Of these, 150 were data-based and the remainder were expert opinion or review-style articles. A summary of results generally reveals HWC as a promising intervention for chronic diseases though further research is needed in most categories. The resulting HWC compendium organizes and describes the quantity and quality of available literature for the use and benefit of HWC practitioners and researchers.

Keywords: behavior change; cancer; chronic disease management; diabetes; health behaviors; heart disease; hypertension; lifestyle medicine; obesity; risk factor management; wellness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Sforzo—Has a potential conflict of interest as a research consultant to Wellcoaches. Kaye, Todorova, Harenberg, Costello, Cobus-Kuo, and Faber—Declare no potential conflicts of interest. Frates—Has a potential conflict of interest being in private practice called Wellness Synergy for lifestyle counseling and health and wellness coaching. Moore—Has a potential conflict of interest as an owner and CEO of the Wellcoaches School of Coaching for health professionals. The authors have prepared this article with fidelity and objectivity; though a potential for conflict exists great care was taken for no bias to be reflected in this work.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Partial screenshot of Health and Wellness Coaching Compendium Part A. Meant to convey concept of Compendium but not provide detailed information. For more details see Online Appendices A and B (available at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/1559827617708562).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Flowchart of systematic review process.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Health and wellness coaching (HWC) articles published since 2000 and found in Compendium Parts A and B. R, randomized, controlled trials; NR5, before and after trials; NR9, qualitative studies; other, all other nonrandomized designed studies with data; CND, coaching articles without data (eg, commentary, opinions, reviews).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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