Dementia Caregiver Interventions: A Systematic Review of CaregiverOutcomes and Instruments in Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

A variety of psychosocial interventions have been developed to support dementia caregivers. Compar- ing positive effects on caregivers across these intervention studies are difficult because of the diverse endpoints. The objectives of this review were: (1) to show what types of interventions were conducted in international randomized controlled trails with dementia caregivers; (2) to provide an overview of what main caregiver outcome dimensions can be categorized; and (3) what validated instruments are most frequently used to assess these outcomes. A sys- tematic, computerized literature search was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed, Medline, EBSCO, and PsycINFO. Records of interest were randomized controlled trials for informal caregivers of home dwelling care recipients with any type of dementia. In the 69 identified studies 82 different validated assessments were used, which were categorized in 15 dimensions. About two out of three studies examined psychoeducational interventions. The five most prevalent outcomes were: depressive symptoms (N = 34); burden (N = 33); self-efficacy/coping/mastery (N = 19); emotional distress (N = 19); and quality of life (N = 17). These outcomes were mostly assessed with: the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (N = 23); the Zarit Burden Interview (N = 24); the Revised Scale for Caregiving Self-Efficacy (N = 4); the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (N = 7); and the WHO Quality of Life (N = 5). This literature review serves as the first step to identify outcomes and assessments which have actually been used. An important next step to improve comparability between studies could be the development of taxonomy to classify and describe the key influential components of interventions in this research field.