Family functioning in the context of an adult family member with illness: A concept analysis.

The analysis was conducted by a single author. Only a second reviewer checked a subset of entries. Only English-language articles were included, and the selected papers were a sample, not the full literature. The reviewed articles included psychology, nursing, medicine, rehabilitation, public health, family studies, and dietetics. Publications from disciplines other than psychology were few, so the definition may not fit contexts outside mental health concerns. Most reviewed studies were cross-sectional descriptive designs, and few tested interventions to improve family functioning. The proposed definition was based largely on Western studies, and sociocultural or political context was rarely reported. There were few papers about acute illness, and the literature did not establish consensus on optimal family functioning.

The author declared no conflicts of interest.

Do not read the five attributes as proof that assessing them improves patient or family outcomes. This paper analyzed concepts in published articles, not patients, and it does not test an intervention.