Table 1.

Search strategy adapted for PubMed database.

Concept	Search terms
Chronic diseases	(chronic[ti/ab] OR “chronic disease”[ti/ab] OR long-term[ti/ab] OR “chronic disease”[MeSH] OR “chronic disease hospital”[MeSH]) AND (respiratory[ti/ab] OR pulmonary[ti/ab] OR kidney[ti/ab] OR cerebrovascular[ti/ab] OR infection[ti/ab] OR cancer[ti/ab] OR metabolic[ti/ab] OR gastr*[ti/ab] OR cardiac[ti/ab] OR hypertension[ti/ab] OR asthma[ti/ab] OR COPD[ti/ab] OR neuro*[ti/ab] OR coronary[ti/ab] OR diabetes[ti/ab] OR hypertensive[ti/ab] OR urinary[ti/ab] OR urological[ti/ab] OR reproductive[ti/ab] OR cardiovascular[ti/ab] OR skin[ti/ab] OR dermatolog*[ti/ab] OR psychiatr*[ti/ab] OR mental[ti/ab] OR joint[ti/ab] OR hormon*[ti/ab] OR “heart disease”[ti/ab] OR disease*[ti/ab] OR endocrin*[ti/ab] OR neoplas*[ti/ab] OR communicable[ti/ab] OR non-communicable[ti/ab])
Outcome	(“Treatment outcome”[ti/ab] OR outcome[ti/ab] OR psychosocial[ti/ab] OR lab*[ti/ab] OR “physical outcome”[ti/ab] OR stress[ti/ab] OR depress*[ti/ab] OR “disease recurrence”[ti/ab] OR perception[ti/ab] OR “Disease progression”[ti/ab] OR “self-care”[ti/ab] OR complication*[ti/ab] OR hospitalization[ti/ab] OR self-efficacy[ti/ab] OR “self-management”[ti/ab] OR compliance[ti/ab] OR adherence[ti/ab] OR knowledge[ti/ab] OR attitude[ti/ab] OR behavior[ti/ab] OR “quality of life”[ti/ab])
Intervention	(“Health education” [MeSH] OR “patient education”[MeSH] OR “Health education” [ti/ab] OR “patient education”[ti/ab] OR psychoeducation[ti/ab] OR “therapeutic education”[ti/ab] OR “consumer health information” OR “health knowledge”[ti/ab] OR “client education”[ti/ab])
Study design	(trial*[ti/ab] OR RCT[ti/ab] OR randomized-controlled[ti/ab] OR “cluster randomized controlled”[ti/ab] OR intervention[ti/ab] OR “clinical trial“[PT] OR “controlled clinical trial”[PT])