Burden and social support in caregivers of people with kidney disease: a systematic integrative review

Abstract

The task of providing care to patients with chronic kidney disease can lead caregivers to experience burden. Social support can be a strategy to assist caregivers in coping with the demands of their caregiving task. The article aimed to synthesize the evidence available in the literature on social support and burden among caregivers of adult people with chronic kidney disease. It consists of a systematic integrative review conducted according to what was proposed by Whittemore and Knalf. The databases MEDLINE, Psyco INFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, LILACS, and Scopus were searched, without restrictions on language or year of publication. Nine studies published between the years 2013 and 2022 were included. The caregivers are usually married women of working age. According to the results of the selected articles, it is suggested that social support is an important strategy to deal with the burden stemming from the caregiving task. It is concludes that social support seems to be an important resource for caregivers of people with CKD (including social support provided online). More research with higher methodological rigor is needed to shed light on the depth of knowledge on this topic.