Psychosocial phenotyping as a personalization strategy for chronic disease self-management interventions

Abstract

Background: As the U.S. population grows older and more diverse, self-management needs are increasingly complicated. In order to deliver effective personalized interventions to those suffer from chronic conditions social determinants of health must be considered. Therefore, psychosocial phenotyping holds strong promise as a tool for tailoring interventions based on precision health principles.

Purpose: To define psychosocial phenotyping and develop a research agenda that promotes its integration into chronic disease management as a tool for precision self-management interventions.

Methods: Since psychosocial phenotyping is not yet used in interventions for self-management support, we conducted a literature review to identify potential phenotypes for chronic disease self-management. We also reviewed policy intervention case reports from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to examine factors related to social determinants of health in people with chronic illnesses. Finally, we reviewed methodological approaches for identifying patient profiles or phenotypes.

Results: The literature review revealed areas within which to collect data for psychosocial phenotyping that can inform personalized interventions. The findings of our exemplar cases revealed that several environmental or key SDOH such as factors realted with economic stability and neighborhood environment have been closely linked with the success of chronic disease management interventions. We elucidated theory, definitions, and pragmatic conceptual boundaries related to psychosocial phenotyping for precision health.

Conclusions: Our literature review with case example analysis demonstrates the potential usefulness of psychosocial phenotyping as a tool to enhance personalized self-management interventions for people with chronic diseases, with implications for future research.

Keywords: Psychosocial phenotyping; multiple chronic disease; precision health; self-management; social determinants of health.

Figure 1

Flow diagram of study selection process.