The meaningfulness of participating in Support Groups for informal caregives of older adults with dementia: A Systematic Review Protocol.

Review question/objective

The objective of this review is to identify the meaningfulness of participating in support groups for informal caregivers of older adults with dementia living in their own home.

More specifically, the review question is:

How do informal caregivers of older adults with dementia, living in urban and rural settings, perceive the meaningfulness of participating in support groups?

Inclusion Criteria

Types of participant(s)

This review will consider studies that include informal caregivers of older adults aged 65 years and older with dementia, regardless of the severity of the disease and the duration of care. The informal caregiver is mainly seen as a family member and care must be performed at home.

The review will not differentiate between studies involving subsets of informal caregivers (e.g. based on specific ethnicity, gender and/or specific morbidities of dementia among the affected elderly in the care of informal caregivers or other specific differentiations). Should the data synthesis and analysis indicate differing results associated with subsets of informal caregivers, these will be reported separately.

Phenomena of interest

This review will consider studies that investigate how the informal caregivers of older adults with dementia, living in urban or rural settings perceive the meaningfulness of participating in support groups.

The phenomenon of interest will consider studies that include informal caregivers, aged 18 years and older, who are caring for an older adult with dementia, aged 65 years and older, living in their own home.

The setting will be all locations where support groups for informal caregivers have been held and studied.

Types of outcomes

The outcomes of interest include, but are not restricted to the following:

1. Subjective accounts of the informal caregivers’ perceptions of the meaningfulness associated with participating in support groups

2. Beliefs, benefits, rewards and attitudes of the caregivers experiences as a participant in support groups and in the role as caregiver

3. The perception of informal caregivers participating in support groups as a way to release stress