AUTHOR=Heinze Nikki , Davies Ffion , Jones Lee , Castle Claire L. , Gomes Renata S. M. 

TITLE=Conceptualizations of well-being in adults with visual impairment: A scoping review

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964537

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.964537

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Despite its ubiquity, it is often not clear what organizations and services mean by well-being. Visual impairment (VI) has been associated with poorer well-being and well-being has become a key outcome for support and services for adults living with VI. A shared understanding of what well-being means is therefore essential to enable assessment of well-being and cross-service provision of well-being support.</p></sec><sec><title>Objectives</title><p>To provide an overview of the ways in which well-being has been conceptualized in research relating to adults living with VI.</p></sec><sec><title>Eligibility criteria</title><p>Articles were included in the review if the article discussed well-being in the context of adults living with VI, was available in English and as a full text.</p></sec><sec><title>Data sources</title><p>A systematic search using search terms relating to VI and well-being was conducted in EBSCOHost (Medline, CINHL) and Ovid (Embase Classic, Embase, Emcare 1995, Health + Psychosocial, HMIC Health Management Info, APA, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, PsycTests).</p></sec><sec><title>Charting</title><p>A team of three reviewers screened titles, abstracts and full-texts articles and extracted data. Ambiguous articles were referred to the research group and discussed.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Of 10,662 articles identified in the search, 249 were included in the review. These referred to 38 types of well-being. The most common types were general well-being (<italic>n</italic> = 101; 40.6%) emotional well-being (<italic>n</italic> = 86, 34.5%) and psychological well-being (<italic>n</italic> = 66, 26.5%). Most articles (<italic>n</italic> = 150; 60.2%) referred to one type only, with a maximum of 9 listed in one article. A large number of articles did not clearly define well-being. A wide range of indicators of well-being related to the domains of hedonia, mood, positive and negative affect, quality of life, mental health, eudaimonia, self/identity, health, psychological reactions to disability and health problems, functioning, social functioning and environment, were extracted, many of which were used just once.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusions</title><p>There remains a lack of consensus on how well-being is conceptualized and assessed in the context of adult VI. A standardized multi-domain approach derived with input from adults with VI and practitioners working with them is required to enable comparison of findings and cross-organizational provision of support.</p></sec>