Health Science

Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group

Resource Bank part 2: Interventions for the maintenance of health of people with chronic illness

Includes interventions where the aim is to enable and/or maintain certain health-related behaviours. It may include the following:

• Psychosocial interventions;
• Educational interventions;
• Informational interventions;
• Self-management interventions;
• Communication interventions;
• Supportive interventions.

People in countries with free access can view the full text of all reviews on The Cochrane Library.

COMPLETED REVIEWS

• Action plans for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programmes for alcohol dependence.
• Assertive community treatment for people with severe mental disorders.
• Back schools for non-specific low-back pain.
• Care delivery and self-management strategies for adults with epilepsy.
• Case management for people with severe mental disorders.
• Community mental health teams (CMHTs) for people with severe mental illnesses and disordered personality.
• Complex behavioural and educational interventions for nocturnal enuresis in children.
• Compliance therapy for schizophrenia.
• Containment strategies for people with serious mental illness.
• Contracts between patients and healthcare practitioners for improving patients' adherence to treatment, prevention and health promotion activities.
• Culturally appropriate health education for type 2 diabetes mellitus in ethnic minority groups (NEW).
• Culture-specific programs for children and adults from minority groups who have asthma.
• Delayed antibiotics for respiratory infections.
• Dietary advice for illness-related malnutrition in adults.
• Directly observed therapy for treating tuberculosis.
• Early intervention for psychosis.
• Educational interventions for asthma in children.
• Education interventions for adults who attend the emergency room for acute asthma.
• Effectiveness and cost effectiveness of counselling in primary care.
• Effectiveness of shared care across the interface between primary and specialty care in chronic disease management.
• Family intervention for schizophrenia.
• Group based training for self-management strategies in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Home care by outreach nursing for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Individual patient education for low back pain.
• Information provision for stroke patients and their caregivers.
• Interactive Health Communication Applications for people with chronic disease.
• Interventions for drug-using offenders in the courts, secure establishments and the community.      
• Interventions for educating children who have attended the emergency room for asthma.
• Interventions for enhancing medication adherence.

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• Interventions for helping people recognise early signs of recurrence in bipolar disorder.
• Interventions for improving adherence to treatment in patients with high blood pressure in ambulatory settings.
• Interventions for improving adherence to treatment recommendations in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Interventions for improving communication with children and adolescents about their cancer.
• Interventions for improving communication with children and adolescents about a family member's cancer.
• Interventions to improve adherence to lipid lowering medication.
• Interventions to improve compliance with continuous positive airway pressure for obstructive sleep apnoea.
• Interventions used to improve control of blood pressure in patients with hypertension.
• Life skills programmes for chronic mental illnesses.
• Limited (information only) patient education programs for adults with asthma.
• Multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation for neck and shoulder pain among working age adults.
• Multidisciplinary biopsychosocial rehabilitation for subacute low-back pain among working age adults.
• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation for adults with multiple sclerosis.
• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation for fibromyalgia and musculoskeletal pain in working age adults.
• Non-invasive interventions for improving well-being and quality of life in patients with lung cancer.
• Options for self-management education for adults with asthma.
• Orientation and mobility training for adults with low vision
• Parent-mediated early intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder.
• Patient education for adults with rheumatoid arthritis.

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• Patient education for preventing diabetic foot ulceration.
• Patient support and education for promoting adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS.
• Personal assistance for adults (19-64) with both physical and intellectual impairments.
• Personal assistance for adults (19-64) with physical impairments (NEW).
• Personal assistance for children and adolescents (0-18) with both physical and intellectual impairments (NEW).
• Personal assistance for children and adolescents (0-18) with intellectual impairments (NEW).
• Personal assistance for children and adolescents (0-18) with physical impairments (NEW).
• Personal assistance for older adults (65+) without dementia.
• Physical activity programs for persons with dementia (NEW).
• Psychological interventions to improve adherence to oral hygiene instructions in adults with peridontal diseases.
• Prompts to encourage appointment attendance for people with serious mental illness.
• Psychoeducation for schizophrenia.
• Psychological and educational interventions for atopic eczema in children.
• Psychosocial interventions for erectile dysfunction.
• Psychosocial interventions for people with both severe mental illness and substance abuse.
• Psychosocial interventions for smoking cessation in patients with coronary heart disease.
• Psychotherapeutic interventions for cannabis abuse and/or dependence in outpatient settings.
• Rehabilitation for distal radial fractures in adults.
• Reminder packaging for improving adherence to self-administered long-term medications.
• Respite care for people with dementia and their carers.
• Self-help and guided self-help for eating disorders.
• Self-management education and regular practitioner review for adults with asthma.
• Self-management education for adults with epilepsy.
• Self-management education for children with epilepsy.
• Self-management education for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Self-management education programmes by lay leaders for people with chronic conditions.
• Services for reducing duration of hospital care for acute stroke patients.
• Specialist breast care nurses for supportive care of women with breast cancer.
• Specialist epilepsy nurses for treating epilepsy.
• Specialist nurses in diabetes mellitus.
• Strategies to improve adherence and acceptability of hormonal methods for contraception.
• Supported housing for people with severe mental disorders.
• Therapeutic communities for substance related disorder.
• Unit-dose packaged drugs for treating malaria.
• Written action plans for asthma in children.
• Written individualised management plans for asthma in children and adults.

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UPCOMING REVIEWS: PROTOCOLS

• Advance treatment directives for people with severe mental illness.
• Clinical pathways for chronic cough in children.
• Cognitive and behavioural interventions for carers of people with dementia.
• Consultation letters for medically unexplained physical symptoms.
• Early referral to specialist nephrology services for preventing the progression to end-stage kidney disease (NEW).
• Educational interventions for asthma in adults.
• Education and counselling for promoting adherence to the treatment of active tuberculosis.
• Effectiveness of vocational rehabilitation intervention on the return to work and employment of persons with multiple sclerosis (NEW).
• Exercise for older depressed people (NEW).
• Exercise therapy for treating juvenile idiopathic arthritis.
• Family based interventions to improve outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Family support in reducing morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected persons.
• Functional analysis-based interventions for challenging behaviour in dementia.
• Group visits as part of ongoing care for improving health.
• Health education for type 2 diabetes mellitus in ethnic minority groups.
• Home based, parent mediated, early educational intervention for children with, or biologically at risk of, developmental disability.
• Individual patient education for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Information and support interventions for informal caregivers of people with dementia.
• Intermittent drug techniques for schizophrenia.
• Interventions for adherence to pulmonary rehabilitation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
• Interventions for fatigue management after traumatic brain injury.
• Interventions for helping people recognise early signs of recurrence in depression.
• Interventions for improving adherence to ocular hypotensive therapy.
• Interventions for improving the appropriate use of imaging in people with musculoskeletal conditions.
• Interventions for smoking cessation and reduction in individuals with schizophrenia (NEW).
• Interventions to improve adherence to exercise for chronic musculoskeletal pain in adults.
• Interventions to improve evidence-based prescribing for heart failure.
• Interventions to improve outcomes in patients with multimorbidity in primary care and community settings. 
• Interventions to improve the management of asthma in primary care settings.

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• Maintenance treatments for opiate dependent adolescents (NEW).
• Media-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy and behavioural therapy (self-help) for anxiety disorders in adults.
• Mobile phone messaging - a telemedicine for people with diabetes mellitus.
• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation and monodisciplinary rehabilitation for visually impaired adults.
• Multidisciplinary rehabilitation interventions for joint replacement at the knee and hip for arthropathies.
• Occupational therapy for cognitive impairment in stroke patients.
• Parent-training intervention in school-aged children with autistic spectrum disorders.
• Patient education for mechanical neck disorders.
• Parent training interventions in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
• Peer-based interventions for reducing morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected women.
• Peer support strategies for improving the health and well-being of individuals with chronic diseases.
• Peer support telephone call interventions for improving health.
• Physical rehabilitation involving goal setting for older people living in the community.
• Psychosocial interventions for reducing fatigue during cancer treatment in adults.
• Psychosocial interventions for the maintenance of weight loss in obese adults.
• Psychosocial interventions for the prevention of disability following traumatic physical injury.
• Psychological interventions for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
• Psychosocial interventions to improve quality of life and emotional wellbeing for recently diagnosed cancer patients.
• Rehabilitation for older people in long term care.
• Reminder systems and late patient tracers in the diagnosis and management of tuberculosis.

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• Self management for oral anticoagulation.
• Self-management programme for ankylosing spondylitis.
• Shared decision making interventions for people with mental health conditions (NEW).
• Stroke liaison workers for stroke patients and carers.
• Structured telephone support or telemonitoring programs for patients with chronic heart failure (NEW).
• Substitution of nurses for doctors in managing HIV/AIDS antiretroviral therapy (NEW).
• Telephone follow-up for type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Training to recognise the early signs of recurrence in schizophrenia.
• Twenty-four hour care for schizophrenia.
• Vocational rehabilitation for acquired brain injury in adults.
• Worksite intervention for neck and back disorders in workers.

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Continue to Resource Bank part 3: Screening