The Assessment and Measurement of Wellness in the Clinical Medical Setting: A Systematic Review

Overview

Journal Innov Clin Neurosci

Date 2018 Dec 28

PMID 30588362

Citations 19

Authors

Ryan Bart

Waguih William IsHak

Shaina Ganjian

Karim Yahia Jaffer

Marina Abdelmesseh

Sophia Hanna

Yasmine Gohar

Gezelle Azar

Brigitte Vanle

Jonathan Dang

Itai Danovitch

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We conducted a systematic review of the published literature relating to the assessment and measurement of wellness in order to answer the following questions: 1) What is the working definition of wellness? 2) What wellness assessment instruments have been evaluated or applied in medical settings? 3) How valid, reliable, and accessible are these wellness assessment tools? The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed for this systematic review. Studies published from1990 to 2016 on wellness assessment were identified through Medline and PsycINFO using the following keywords: "assessment" OR "evaluation" OR "measurement" AND "wellness" OR "wellbeing." Two authors independently conducted a focused analysis then reached a consensus on 23 studies that met the specific selection criteria. This review revealed that there is a lack of uniform definition of wellness. The studies utilizing wellness assessment tools demonstrate strongest reliability values for the following instruments: Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle, Five-factor Wellness Evaluation of Lifestyle, Perceived Wellness Survey, the Optimal Living Profile, and the Body-Mind-Spirit Wellness Behavior and Characteristic Inventory. However, there is insufficient evidence to support the clinical utility of a single particular wellness instrument. Properly defining wellness might help drive the development and validation of more precise assessment and measurement methods. This could reinforce interventions that promote wellness.

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