Journal article
Group-based interventions for carers of people with dementia: a systematic review
- Abstract:
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Background and Objectives
It is well documented that caring for someone with dementia is associated with many negative mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, and a reduction in quality of life. Group-based interventions are one strategy for improving well-being for carers, but previous systematic reviews have reported inconsistent findings about the efficacy of group-based interventions for carers of people with dementia.
Research Design and Methods
This systematic review investigates the qualitative and quantitative evidence for the effectiveness of group-based interventions and identifies targets for future research. Narrative synthesis was used to analyze the data.
Results
A comprehensive search of 4 databases revealed 117 potentially relevant studies, 19 of which met the full inclusion criteria. Five studies investigated group cognitive behavioral therapy, 8 investigated psycho-educational interventions, and 6 investigated support groups. The effectiveness of the interventions varied widely, even within subcategories. No type of intervention was consistently shown to improve well-being, though qualitative data and data about participant satisfaction was generally very positive.
Discussion and Implications
Based on the quality and quantity of the evidence currently available, there is not enough evidence to reach firm conclusions about the impact of group-based interventions on well-being. In order to establish the effectiveness of group-based interventions there needs to be more high-quality studies with larger sample sizes about this topic. Future research may benefit from the use of mixed methods data collection to explore the disparity between qualitative and quantitative findings in the literature.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Supplementary materials, pdf, 218.4KB, Terms of use)
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 1.5MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/geroni/igac011
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Innovation in Aging More from this journal
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 3
- Article number:
- igac011
- Publication date:
- 2022-03-06
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-02-24
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2399-5300
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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2120043
- Local pid:
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pubs:2120043
- Deposit date:
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2025-04-28
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Bethany McLoughlin
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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