Dementia Informal Caregiving in Latinos: What Does the Qualitative Literature Tell Us?

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In the next few decades, the number of older Latinos with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias will increase dramatically. Latino families, who provide a substantial amount of caregiving in the home for kin with degenerative brain disease, will face the challenges of care provision at a time when intergenerational support is changing. The goal of this study was to systematically review the qualitative literature on caregiving of Latinos with ADRD in order to identify key themes and opportunities to advance the field. We found that sociocultural context and processes are fundamental in our understanding of informal caregiving for dementia in Latinos. The literature has provided descriptions of the experience of Latino caregivers (e.g. costs, burden, and rewards) as well as their views and knowledge of the disease. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding how we evaluate Latino caregivers’ perceptions against their actual behavior. A gap also exists in the lack of longitudinal research (both quantitative and qualitative) in order to identify changes over time, pivotal events, and causal pathways shaping the ADRD Latino caregiver trajectory. This is important in advancing research to address those gaps and in translating the existing knowledge into meaningful policy and intervention work.