Person-centered rehabilitation care and outcomes: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Background: Despite growing recognition of person-centered care as an essential component of quality care, little is known about how person-centered care can be implemented in the provision of care services and how it is empirically related to outcomes in the rehabilitation settings.

Objectives: To investigate the extent of implementation of the person-centered care in rehabilitation practices, as well as its effects on relevant outcomes.

Design: Systematic literature review.

Data sources: Six electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Scopus, PsycARTICLES, and Cochrane library) were searched for articles published between January 2000 and January 2018.

Methods: Based on the inclusion criteria, quantitative studies that examined person-centered rehabilitation interventions and relevant outcomes were included. Study quality assessment, data extraction, and synthesis were performed.

Results: For this systematic review, 17 eligible studies were included and most studies were rated as low-quality. The selected studies were varied concerning the use of the term person-centered care, research design, target population, sample size, setting, intervention, and outcome measures. The most examined interventions in this review were focused on goal setting and shared-decision making processes based on the client-centered approach. The implementation of those interventions varied considerably. Results showed mixed relationships between person-centered care and the outcomes examined in the studies although there was strong evidence regarding the positive effects of person-centered care on occupational performance and rehabilitation satisfaction.

Conclusions: Person-centered care has been increasingly advocated in rehabilitation settings. However, we found that true person-centered care was not fully implemented in rehabilitation practices. Moreover, it appears that person-centered care could positively affect rehabilitation outcomes, such as significant improvements in functional performance and quality of life, however, evidence about these positive effects of person-centered care is not sufficient. More research with rigorous designs is needed.

Keywords: Client-centered care; Goal setting; Patient-centered care; Person-centered care; Rehabilitation.