Multidimensional interventions to increase life-space mobility in older adults ranging from nursing home residents to community-dwelling: a systematic scoping review

BACKGROUND: Life-space mobility (LSM) is an important aspect of older adults’ real-life mobility. Studies have shown that restricted LSM is a risk factor for many adverse outcomes such as low quality of life and mortality. Therefore, an increasing number of interventions aim to enhance LSM. However, the intervention approaches differ in terms of their type/content, duration, targeted populations, but also in terms of their outcome measures and assessment tools. Especially the latter impairs the comparability of studies with otherwise similar interventional approaches and thus also the interpretation of their results. Therefore, this systematic scoping review aims to provide an overview of the intervention components, assessment tools, and effectiveness of studies aiming to improve LSM in older adults. METHODS: A systematic literature search was carried out in PubMed and Web of Science. We considered studies in older adults of any design that included an intervention approach and at least one outcome of LSM. RESULTS: 27 studies were included in the review. These studies analyzed healthy community-dwelling as well as frail older adults in need of care or rehabilitation and nursing home residents with a mean age between 64 and 89. The percentage of female participants ranged from 3 to 100%. The types of interventions were of the following: physical, counseling, multidimensional, miscellaneous. Multidimensional interventions consisting of physical interventions plus any of the following or a combination of counseling/education/motivation/information appear to be most effective in increasing LSM. Older adults with mobility impairments were more responsive to these multidimensional interventions compared to healthy older adults. Most of the studies used the questionnaire-based Life-Space Assessment to quantify LSM. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of a heterogenous stock of literature investigating LSM-related interventions in older adults. Future meta-analyses are needed to provide a quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of LSM interventions and recommendations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-023-04118-3.