Key result
Transitional care interventions yield small HRQoL improvements at one month that diminish by three months.
Why the study?
Multimorbidity is linked to higher mortality, reduced functional capacity, and lower HRQoL, but the effectiveness of postdischarge multidisciplinary transitional care interventions remained to be systematically evaluated.
Do multidisciplinary transitional care interventions improve health-related quality of life and patient satisfaction in people living with multimorbidity after hospital discharge?
Systematic Review (n=5,790)
Do multidisciplinary transitional care interventions improve health-related quality of life and patient satisfaction in people living with multimorbidity after hospital discharge?
Effect estimate: MD 0.22 (95% CI 0.19-0.42)
Multidisciplinary transitional care interventions for patients with multimorbidity offer only small, transient improvements in short-term quality of life and depression, without reducing mortality or hospitalizations.
HRQoL benefit without mortality or hospitalization reduction supports individualized transitional care decisions; reinforces value of patient-reported outcomes in cardiovascular RCTs.
Background Multimorbidity is associated with higher mortality rates, reduced functional capacity, and lower health‐related quality of life (HRQoL). Multidisciplinary transitional care interventions (TCIs) provided after hospital discharge have the potential to improve HRQoL and patient satisfaction. Methods A systematic review was conducted, inception to October 2023, focusing on randomized clinical trials retrieved from MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The primary outcome measures were HRQoL and patient satisfaction. Secondary outcomes included mortality, adverse events, activities of daily living, adherence, hospitalizations, length of stay, emergency department visits, specialist and primary care visits, social support, mood, and caregiver burden. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane RoB‐2 tool, and the overall quality of evidence was evaluated with GRADE. When possible, a meta‐analysis was conducted using Stata 17. Results A total of 21 studies ( N = 5790) were included. The data suggest that TCIs may lead to small improvements in short‐term HRQoL (1 month: MD = 0.22; 95% CI: 0.19–0.42), although this effect diminishes by 3 months. No evidence was found for patient satisfaction. TCIs likely do not reduce mortality or hospitalization rates but may result in a slight reduction in depression (SMD = −0.27; 95% CI: −0.47 to −0.06). Evidence on other outcomes is limited, with no significant differences observed in adverse events or adherence. Conclusion Overall, TCIs have a limited impact on mortality or hospitalization rates and may offer short‐term improvements in HRQoL and depression, while evidence for patient satisfaction and other outcomes remains limited and their long‐term effects remain uncertain.
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Pino-Sedeño et al. (2026) conducted a systematic review in Multimorbidity (n=5,790). Multidisciplinary transitional care interventions (TCIs) was evaluated on Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and patient satisfaction (MD 0.22, 95% CI 0.19-0.42). Transitional care interventions for multimorbidity led to small improvements in short-term health-related quality of life at 1 month (MD 0.22; 95% CI 0.19-0.42), which diminished by 3 months.
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