Preventive care models for older adults with multimorbidity: A systematic review for better health outcomes

• Author Details:   
• B. Sharmila
• Santosh Ramesh Achwani
• Biswajit Dash
• S. Veenakirthika
• S. Sivakumar
• Kanagaraj Rengaramanujam
• Danti Joseph
• Rajkumar Krishnan Vasanthi
• Kumaraswamy Dabburu
• Nirmali Gogoi ^*

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Quality of life (QoL) in older adults encompasses physical, mental, and social well-being, focusing on maintaining independence and daily functioning. Aged residential care (ARC) is institutionalized care for those unable to live independently due to physical or cognitive decline. Preventive interventions aimed at improving older adults’ health outcomes often target reducing hospital admissions, delaying ARC entry, and enhancing functional ability. Effective interventions address multimorbidity, promote autonomy, and integrate health professional education to ensure long-term health improvements, including QoL. Early reviews on preventive interventions have shown mixed results due to variations in intervention designs, follow-up durations, and contextual factors. Many studies overlooked the integration of diverse care models and holistic outcomes like autonomy and QoL. The role of health risk professional education in supporting intervention implementation has been underexplored. This systematic review aims to consolidate evidence, address research gaps, and provide insights into effective strategies for improving health outcomes in older populations. The review methodology includes a comprehensive search strategy, data extraction, and clear inclusion and exclusion criteria. A quality assessment of the studies ensures high-quality research, and risk of bias analysis evaluates study reliability. The key focus areas include age range and comorbidity, health professional education, intervention effects, main outcomes, recommendations, and study limitations. This review addresses earlier gaps by offering a detailed analysis of integrative intervention models, emphasizing health professional education, and focusing on the sustainability of preventive strategies crucial for today's aging population. Given that the studies reviewed were conducted in high-income countries, future research should explore the adaptation of such interventions to resource-constrained settings, particularly in developing countries facing a growing aging population.

Keywords: Aged residential care (ARC), Older adults, Preventive interventions, Quality of life (QoL).