Key Areas of Preventive Home Visits and Their Importance for Older Adults: A Scoping Review

An updated review of preventive home visits (PHVs) to older adults is needed to guide future interventions. Nurses play a crucial role in PHVs, and the key areas during this type of visit are important to describe. Moreover, the perspectives of older adults on the visits would provide a foundation for future guidelines about PHVs. Such guidelines could promote equal health conditions. The aim of this scoping review was to identify and synthesise research on key areas in PHVs for older adults, as well as visualise older adults' perspectives.

This is a scoping review inspired by the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines for scoping reviews.

Four key areas of nursing practice in PHVs were identified in this scoping review: Supporting older adults' autonomy and independence, Creating a relationship between the older adult and the nurse, Advising to prevent ill health and promote health, and Providing helpful information. Moreover, the following categories described older adults' perspective: Ranging from improving well-being to offering nothing of benefit, Maintaining independence and autonomy, Having a person to contact, and Appreciating information, advice, and support.

PHVs are not always conducted by nurses, and some of the included articles involve multiple professions in the visits. This makes it difficult to argue that the findings represent only visits conducted by nurses.

PHVs for older adults can help those adults maintain independence and autonomy in older age. Having a contact person seems to be important not only when it comes to illness but also for maintaining or improving health and well-being.