Background and aims: Recent studies reported that virtual health coaching (VHCs) had greater benefits on glycemic control compared to traditional diabetes care. However, VHCs are reported to lack real-time evaluations and personalized patient feedback. To support the intention of developing high quality VHC programs, this review aimed to describe characteristics of the coach-client interaction within VHC that had beneficial impacts on patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients.
Methods: We conducted a comprehensive scoping review following the six steps of the framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley. Twelve articles that met the eligibility criteria were retrieved from Medline, ProQuest, Science Direct and Scopus.
Results: We found five key concepts regarding the characteristics of coach-client interactions. First, the discussion through smartphones involved individualized feedback and insights, goals setting, barrier identification, facilitation to change behavior, and also clients' clinical, mental, and social conditions. Second, the interactions were supported by in-app features including in-app messaging, email, in-app live video consultation and in-app discussion forums. Third, the most used time of evaluation was 12 months. Fourth, the most commonly delivered topic was lifestyle changes which were predominantly focused on dietary patterns. Fifth, most of health coaches were health liaisons.
Conclusions: The findings highlight the discussion points within interaction through well-planned devices combining an appropriate in-app features contribute to an effective coach-client interactions of VHC. It is expected that future studies can apply these findings as the basis to develop a single set of standards for VHCs which refer to specific patterns of patient-oriented interaction.
Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Interaction; Scoping review; Virtual health coaching.
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