Family Caregiver Support of Patient Self-Management During Chronic, Life-Limiting Illness: A Qualitative Metasynthesis.

This is a synthesis of qualitative reports, not a trial or intervention study. It cannot show that any caregiver support improves patient self-management. The literature was emerging and did not reach saturation for all processes and factors. The included studies were too few to examine differences by care setting, country, or type of illness. Many included studies gave incomplete caregiver information, such as relationship to patient, race, ethnicity, and summary statistics. This makes comparison across studies difficult. Caregiver samples were often hard to recruit and lacked diversity, with mostly spouses and urban participants. Some primary studies reported recall bias or interviews conducted with the patient present. Some included articles lacked detail on study design or analytic approach.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural and U.S. Government, non-PHS research support.

Do not read this as evidence that any caregiver intervention improves patient self-management. It is a qualitative metasynthesis of caregiver reports, not a test of treatments or outcomes.