Implementation of the Age‐Friendly Health System 4M Framework: A Scoping Review
Suyi Xu, Danni Xu, Jun Wu, Jianwen Fan, Huafen WangBackground
With aging global populations, hospitals need to adapt to ensure high‐quality care for older adults. The 4Ms of an age‐friendly health system (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility) aim to support evidence‐based and high‐quality care for older adults.
Aim
To systematically analyze studies on the application of the 4M framework to identify the specific content, outcome indicators, and effects of the interventions and to provide reference for medical staff to carry out relevant research.
Design
Scoping review.
Methods
According to the scoping review framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley, PubMed, Cochrane library, Web of Science, Embase, and the official websites of relevant authorities were systematically searched, and relevant references were searched manually. The included articles were screened, summarized, and analyzed. We included articles reporting on the application of the 4M framework across diverse healthcare settings, regardless of whether the setting was officially recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement as an age‐friendly health system.
Results
A total of 21 articles were included. Across the included studies, positive effects were observed in safety indicators, mobility, mental status, medical costs, patient satisfaction, and quality of life. However, not all reported outcomes reached statistical significance, and several studies reported nonsignificant findings for certain measures.
Conclusion
The 4M framework has a positive effect in an age‐friendly health system, but the field is in the initial stage. In the future, attention should be paid to developing intervention strategies and evaluation criteria on the basis of evidence, and multicenter high‐quality randomized controlled studies should be conducted to explore the best intervention protocols.