The Participation of Older Persons in the Adoption of Age‐Friendly Care Models in Hospital Settings: A Scoping Review

TL;DR

This review explores how older people are involved in adopting age-friendly care models in hospitals, finding their participation is limited and mostly in consultation roles.

Contribution

The study provides a scoping review of older persons' participation in age-friendly care adoption, highlighting gaps in meaningful involvement.

Findings

Older persons' participation is mainly through consultation, not shared leadership or partnership.

Participation occurs during the implementation phase, not in embedding or integration phases.

Barriers and facilitators include patient-related and organizational factors.

Abstract

Hospitals are increasingly adopting age‐friendly care (AFC) models to address the limitations of traditional care models in the care of older persons. Integrating older persons' participation in this adoption process could lead to hospital care that is tailored to their needs and preferences. However, a comprehensive understanding of older persons' participation in AFC adoption remains limited. Thus, we conducted a scoping review following the JBI methodology and the PRISMA‐ScR reporting guideline to identify and examine the breadth of evidence on this topic. We searched six health science databases in December 2022 (updated in February 2024) for peer‐reviewed research studies describing older persons' participation in the adoption of AFC models in hospital settings. Five unique studies reported in six articles from 2307 screened articles met our inclusion criteria. Older persons' participation appeared primarily at the organizational design and governance level when responding to surveys and interviews, providing verbal feedback (consultation) and, to a lesser extent, joining expert panels as members (involvement). Participation occurred during the implementation phase of AFC adoption. Barriers and facilitators influencing participation included patient‐related and organizational‐related factors. Our review highlighted the limited scope and existing knowledge on older persons' participation in AFC adoption, raising a concern that AFC models may be adopted without adequate consideration of older persons' perceived care needs and preferences.

Older persons rarely participate in the adoption of AFC models in hospitals, with their participation typically confined to consultation rather than involvement, partnership, and shared leadership.Using the NPT, participation of older persons was mainly aligned with the constructs of coherence and reflexive monitoring during the earlier implementation phase of adoption, with no evidence in the embedding and integration phases.We identified that further research is needed to improve and promote meaningful participation of older persons in adopting AFC models in acute care hospitals.

Older persons rarely participate in the adoption of AFC models in hospitals, with their participation typically confined to consultation rather than involvement, partnership, and shared leadership.

Using the NPT, participation of older persons was mainly aligned with the constructs of coherence and reflexive monitoring during the earlier implementation phase of adoption, with no evidence in the embedding and integration phases.

We identified that further research is needed to improve and promote meaningful participation of older persons in adopting AFC models in acute care hospitals.

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