94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
REVIEW article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Patient Centered Health Systems
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1534178
This article is part of the Research Topic The State of the Art of Person-Centered Healthcare: Global Perspectives View all articles
Person-centred care as an evolving field of research: A scoping review
Provisionally accepted
Emma Forsgren 1*
Caroline Feldthusen 1
Sara Wallström 1
Lovisa Thunström 1
Lars Kullman 2
Richard Sawatzky 1 Joakim Öhlén 1- 1 Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2 Gothenburg University Library, University of Gothenburg,, Gothenburg, Sweden
Introduction: Changes in policy towards a healthcare approach viewing patients as persons provide calls for person-centred healthcare practices. The objective of this scoping review was to present an overview of the international literature on PCC. Methods: Database-specific search string including index terms and free text words related to PCC were constructed to identify relevant literature indexed in PubMed, Scopus, PsychINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science. Two different methods of combined manual and computerassisted screening were applied to identify citations to be included in the review. Results: In total, 1 351 publications were included, whereof theoretical and empirical studies were most prevalent in the sample. For the latter, the most common setting was hospital care. The study population was most often health professionals or patients. The most frequently used term was patient-centred, followed by person-centred and family-centred. Research from six continents was included. An exploration of collaborations and research clusters has revealed several clusters. Discussion: This review provides a snapshot of the literature on PCC. The lack of clarity in terminology presents barriers to comprehensively overviewing the vast amount of available research within the field, which in turn presents challenges for research-based policy and practice development.
Keywords: Systematic review, Scoping review, Patient-Centered Care, person-centred care, text mining, EPPI-Reviewer, Literature review as topic, Integrated Care
Received: 25 Nov 2024; Accepted: 18 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Forsgren, Feldthusen, Wallström, Thunström, Kullman, Sawatzky and Öhlén. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Emma Forsgren, Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.