Conceptualising patient empowerment: a mixed methods study

This study set out to give patient empowerment a clear working definition, since interventions meant to promote it are hard to evaluate without one. The authors note that policy and service programmes, especially for people with long-term conditions, have expanded in recent years while the concept itself stayed loosely defined. The researchers combined two methods. First, a scoping review of the literature identified 67 articles that offered a definition of patient empowerment, and thematic analysis drew out the recurring ideas in those definitions. Second, they carried out 19 semi-structured interviews with patients, patient representatives, health managers and health service researchers in the UK. The interview transcripts were coded against a framework built from the review's themes, and the findings were used to refine the map. The resulting conceptual map presents empowerment as a state along a spectrum from low to high, potentially measured through a set of indicators. It identifies five components: underpinning ethos, moderators, interventions, indicators and outcomes. It also places related constructs, including health literacy, self-management and shared decision-making, in relation to these components. The findings rest on a single national context and a modest interview sample, so the map may not transfer directly to other health systems. The text does not describe how the indicators were validated or tested against outcomes.