The Importance of Effective Health Management in Improving Patient Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: The priority of healthcare systems is to manage the overall health of the communities, and patients who receive healthcare are ultimately the ones being treated for an underlying medical condition to improve their health. Medical treatments are generally very effective, but do expose patients to risks and if we can treat the underlying disease or condition without adding further risks we would be taking a big step towards achieving excellent patient outcomes. There are medical conditions where providing information, support, guidance and advice, collectively termed health management, is effective in itself or enhances the benefit of conventional treatments and this is the focus of this review. Health Conditions And Their Management: Evidence of a range of health conditions responding to health management is widely available and includes asthma, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes, arthritic pain, depression, mental health problems, dizziness, falls, visual and hearing disturbances, sleep disorders, tension headache, gastro-oesophageal reflux, constipation, dysmenorrhoea, menopausal symptoms, fertility, pelvic pain, varicose veins, leg ulcers, menorrhagia, fibroids, bacterial vaginosis, endometriosis, urinary incontinence, female sexual difficulties, benign breast disease, osteoporosis, stroke, systemic sclerosis, minimising risk in the development of complications of pregnancy, health problems caused by disordered behaviour in dementia, falls and fractures in the elderly, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or a thyroid nodule, low back pain and other musculoskeletal symptoms.