Pfeiffer, Klaus

Background: Providing care for someone with a disease or chronic condition can have a negative psychological, physical, social, and economic impact upon informal caregivers. Despite the socio-economic relevance and more than three decades of caregiver intervention research only very few translational efforts of successful interventions are reported. Still less of these interventions have been implemented into routine services.

OBJECTIVES: To review the evidence evaluating the effectiveness of informal caregiver interventions to facilitate the recovery of older people discharged from the hospital. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING: Hospital and community. METHODS: Published and unpublished randomized and nonrandomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of informal caregiver interventions to support the recovery of older people discharged from the hospital were identified (to March 2019). The primary outcome was patient health-related quality of life (HRQOL).