Table 1.

Included studies in the synthesis.

Author	Country	Sample	Method	Theoretical approach	Theme
					Compliance	Responsibility	Collaborative partnership	Tailored support	Lived experience	Social practice
Hunt and Arar44	USA	51 Mexican–American patients with type 2 diabetes; 35 HCPs recruited from public clinics	Interviews	Medical anthropological (explanatory models)	X	X			X
Carbone et al.45	USA	37 Latino patients with type 2 diabetes; 15 HCPs recruited from a community health centre	Focus groups	–	X			X
Crowe et al.46	New Zealand	64 patients with chronic low back pain; 22 HCPs recruited through advertisement, newsletter and physiotherapy clinics	Interviews	–	X	X			X
Blakeman et al.47	UK	12 patients with range of LTCs (including diabetes, IHD, stroke and asthma); 17 HCPs recruited from GP practices	Interviews and observations of clinical consultations	–		X			X
Kirby et al.48	Australia	33 patients with range of LTCs (e.g. chronic respiratory problems or heart failure); 18 clinicians recruited from hospital and primary care	Interviews	Psychological (social cognitive theory)	X	X
Pooley et al.49	UK	47 patients with type 2 diabetes; 38 HCPs recruited from GP practices	Interviews	–			X	X
Yen et al.50	Australia	88 primary care HCPs working with patients with a range of LTCs (COPD, diabetes and CHF) recruited from primary care settings	Focus groups	–	X	X
Lake and Staiger51	Australia	31 HCPs (e.g. GPs, nurses, psychologists) working with patients with range of LTCs recruited from acute, primary and community health care settings	Group and individual interviews	–		X	X	X		X
Blakeman et al.52	UK	16 GPs working with patients with a range of LTCs recruited from two primary care trusts	Interviews	Social science (Howie’s theoretical model applied to GP consultations)		X
Macdonald et al.53	UK	25 nurses working with individuals with range of LTCs recruited from chronic disease clinics	Interviews	Psychosocial (‘trajectory model’ and ‘personal construct’ theories)			X	X		X
Phillips et al.54	Australia	14 clinicians working with patients with range of LTCs recruited from hospital and community urban settings	Telephone interviews and survey	–	X			X
Guidetti et al.55	Sweden	12 occupational therapists working with stroke and SCI patients recruited from a rehabilitation setting	Interviews	Phenomenological			X	X
Oftedal et al.56	Norway	19 people with type 2 diabetes recruited from a hospital, educational programme, local diabetes association and GP practices	Focus groups	–			X	X
Thorne and Paterson57	Canada	22 adults with type 1 diabetes identified as experts in self-care nominated by clinicians	Multiple interviews. Grounded theory approach	–			X	X
Guidetti et al.58	Sweden	5 stroke patients and 6 patients with SCI recruited from a rehabilitation setting	Interviews	Phenomenological					X
Guidetti et al.59	Sweden	5 stroke patients and 6 patients with SCI recruited from a rehabilitation setting	Interviews	Phenomenological			X			X
Opal Cox et al.60	USA	39 older stroke survivors (aged 62 years and over) recruited from a rehabilitation hospital	Interviews	–	X	X	X		X
Pound et al.61	UK	40 stroke survivors living in a working-class area of London identified from a stroke register of hospital admissions	Interviews	Sociological (illness narratives)					X	X
Audulv et al.62	Sweden	26 people with range of LTCs (diabetes, MS, rheumatic disease and IBD) recruited from an outpatient clinic	Narrative interviews	Psychological (‘responsibility attribution’)	X	X			X	X
Kralik et al.63	Australia	9 middle-aged older-aged adults with chronic arthritis recruited from an advertisement in a community newsletter	Focus group, written autobiographical accounts and telephone interviews	Psychosocial (experience of transitions)		X			X
Atkin et al.64	UK	23 individuals with encephalitis recruited from a national voluntary organisation	Interviews	Sociological (illness narratives)					X	X
Kielman et al.65	UK	31 patients with chronic respiratory conditions recruited through primary care organisations	Focus groups, diaries and telephone interviews	Social science (‘self-care’, ‘lay knowledge’ and ‘patient-provider interactions’)		X	X
Koch et al.66	Australia	24 older people (aged 60 years and over) with asthma recruited using range of methods (including newspapers and contacting community health workers)	Interviews, questionnaires and participatory action research groups	–	X	X	X		X
Collins et al.67	Ireland	17 patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes recruited from GP practices and diabetic clinics	Interviews	–	X	X
Townsend et al.68	UK	23 people with multiple LTCs taking part in a community health survey	Repeat narrative interviews	Sociological (illness narratives)					X
Schulman-Green et al.69	USA	15 women with advanced breast cancer recruited from a hospital cancer centre	Interviews	–			X		X	X
Cooper et al.70	UK	24 patients with IBD aged between 30 and 40 years recruited from outpatient clinics	Interviews	–			X		X
Clark et al.71	USA	23 older individuals (aged 65 years and over) from white and black ethnic groups with range of LTCs from low-income groups and 12 with private health insurance recruited from primary care settings	Interviews	Psychological (identity theory)	X	X			X
Chen et al.72	Taiwan	18 patients with COPD recruited from a hospital ward, outpatient and rehabilitation settings	Interviews	–	X				X
Hjelm et al.73	Sweden	15 Swedish-born and 13 Yugoslavian-born women with diabetes recruited from primary health care centres	Focus groups	Medical anthropological (lay models of illness causation and health-care seeking behaviours)	X	X
Ploughman et al.74	Canada	18 people aged 55 years and over with MS recruited from MS clinics and outpatient rehabilitation setting	Narrative interviews	Life-course perspective	X	X	X		X	X
Dixon et al.75	USA	27 people with at least one LTC recruited from non-faculty university staff	Interviews	–	X	X			X	X
Furler et al.76	Australia	Ethnically diverse sample of 52 people with type 2 diabetes recruited from community health service and support groups	Focus groups	–			X
Gunn et al.77	United Kingdom	45 people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes living in urban and rural areas admitted to hospital and identified by specialist practitioners	Interviews	–						X
Gallant et al.78	USA	84 people aged 65 years and over from white and African American ethnic backgrounds with range of LTCs (arthritis, diabetes and heart disease) recruited from a range of community organisations	Focus groups	Psychosocial (social cognitive theory and social support theories)						X
McLaughlin and Zeeberg79	Denmarkand USA	51 community-dwelling Danish and 35 American adults with MS	Ethnographic approach: participant observations, interviews and self-reported self-care behaviour questionnaire	–					X
Stamm et al.80	Austria	10 people with RA recruited from rheumatology outpatients clinic	Repeat narrative interviews	Sociological (biographical approach)					X
Lindsay81	UK	53 people with multiple LTCs recruited from CHD registries, as part of a larger RCT study	Focus groups	Sociological (‘chronic illness trajectories’)					X
Cicutto et al.82	Canada	42 individuals with COPD recruited through range of methods (posters in physician and rehabilitation clinics, newsletter and newspaper advertisements)	Focus groups	–			X		X	X
Loignon et al.83	Canada	24 people with asthma from low- and middle-income backgrounds recruited from a general hospital and snowball sampling techniques	Interviews	Sociological (illness narratives)	X	X
Audulv et al.84	Sweden	26 people with range of LTCs (RA, diabetes, IBS, MS, IHD, kidney failure)	Narrative interviews, grounded theory approach	–					X	X
Goodacre85	UK	12 women with chronic arthritis recruited from local arthritis self-help groups	Repeat interviews, diaries and focus groups	Sociological (illness narratives)					X
Kidd et al.86	UK	11 patients with colorectal cancer recruited from a cancer centre	Repeat interviews	Psychological (self-regulation theory)					X	X
Chiu-Chu et al.87	Taiwan	41 patients with type 2 diabetes recruited from hospital clinics	Focus groups	Psychological (self-regulation theory)					X
Corbin and Strauss88	USA	60 people with a range of LTCs (mainly cardiac disease, cancer, stroke, SCI) and their carers	Interviews	Sociological (‘illness trajectories’)					X
Kenning et al.89	UK	20 patients with multiple LTCs (CHD, diabetes, osteoarthritis, COPD and depression) identified from disease registries and HCPs recruited from GP practices, as part of a larger cohort study	Interviews	–	X				X
Hinder and Greenhalgh90	UK	Ethnically diverse sample of 30 people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes recruited from patient groups, primary and secondary health care clinics, community contacts and ethnic minority groups	Ethnographic approach, including home and community observations and interviews	Sociological (‘structuration theory’)	X				X	X
Morris et al.91	UK	21 individuals with multiple LTCs recruited from two GP practices (part of a qualitative study within an RCT)	Interviews	–			X	X	X
Greenhalgh et al.92	UK	82 individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes from minority ethnic groups taking part in an RCT study on storytelling	Ethnographic approach: observations and field notes of group discussions	Biomedical and sociological (illness narratives)					X	X
Ong et al.93	UK	22 individuals aged 50 years and over with chronic knee pain, drawn from a cohort study	Repeat interviews and diaries	Sociological (illness narratives)					X
Clarke and Bennett94	Canada	35 older people (aged 73–91 years) with multiple LTCs recruited through newspaper advertisements and database of participants taking part in a previous study	Multiple interviews	Sociological (illness narratives)					X
Pickard and Rogers95	UK	Patients with multiple LTCs (including diabetes, kidney disease and hypertension) and their carers recruited from patient records in GP practices	Multiple interviews, focuses on one case study	Phenomenological and sociological (illness narratives)		X	X	X	X	X
Audulv et al.96	Sweden	21 people with range of LTCs recruited from an outpatient hospital clinic	Multiple interviews. Grounded theory approach	–					X	X
Samuel-Hodge et al.97	USA	35 African American adults with type 2 diabetes and 32 of their family members recruited through flyers by ‘community recruiters’	Focus groups	–						X
Essue et al.98	Australia	Ethnically diverse sample of 14 carers of patients with a range of LTCs (CHF, COPD, diabetes), who took part in wider study	Secondary qualitative analysis of interviews	–						X

HCP: health care professional; GP: general practitioner; LTC: long-term condition; IHD: ischaemic heart disease; COPD: coronary obstructive pulmonary disease; CHD; congestive heart disease; CHF: congestive heart failure; SCI: spinal cord injury; RA: rheumatoid arthritis; MS: multiple sclerosis; IBD: inflammatory bowel disease; IBS: irritable bowel syndrome; RCT: randomised controlled trial.