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Measuring Whole Person Health: A Scoping Review
Graham DiGuiseppi1, Anthony Rodriguez2, Nabeel Qureshi3
1RAND, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine
|April 3, 2025
Summary
This review clarifies Whole Person Health (WPH) domains and measures. Current WPH instruments assess physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects, but lack standardization for broad application.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Psychometrics
- Integrative Health
Background:
- Whole Person Health (WPH) is recognized as multidimensional, encompassing physical, mental, and spiritual aspects.
- Lack of consensus exists regarding WPH domains and measurement, often conflating WPH outcomes with determinants.
- Existing WPH measures require evaluation for comprehensive domain assessment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a scoping review of proposed Whole Person Health (WPH) domains.
- To identify and evaluate existing WPH measurement instruments.
- To inform future WPH measure development.
Main Methods:
- Scoping review of peer-reviewed articles and gray literature (2014-2023).
- Inclusion criteria: conceptual models or empirical measures of self-reported WPH in adults.
- Databases searched: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, Web of Science, Google Scholar.
Main Results:
- Eleven conceptual articles identified 4-6 of 7 WPH domains (biological/physical, behavioral/mental, social, environmental, spiritual, socioeconomic, individual/other).
- Six WPH measures were identified, assessing biological/physical, behavioral/mental, social, and spiritual domains.
- Measures emphasized spirituality and individual domains over environmental and socioeconomic aspects compared to conceptual models.
Conclusions:
- Existing WPH measures are not yet suitable for broad use.
- Commonalities in current measures suggest focusing on physical, mental, social, spiritual, and individual domains for future development.
- Further research is needed to refine WPH conceptualization and measurement.
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