Background and Aim: The European Association of Palliative Care recommends that family carers need education on the progression of dementia. This systematic review aimed to explore whether interventions incorporating education regarding the progressive nature of dementia increased carers' understanding of dementia and improved mental health and burden. Method: MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched to April 2018. Randomised controlled trials with samples of family carers of someone with dementia were eligible. Included interventions involved a component aimed to increase the carer's understanding of the progression of dementia. Outcomes of interest included: knowledge of dementia, depression, burden and pre-death grief. Results: Searches identified 3221 unique citations of which 11 studies were eligible for review. Interventions ranged from 4-16 sessions of which 1-3 sessions focused on the progression of dementia. Knowledge: Two studies evaluated carers' knowledge of dementia. One found no difference between the trial arms immediately after the intervention or three months later. The second found a significant intervention effect at the end of the intervention, but not at three month follow-up. Depression: Seven studies evaluated intervention effects on depression. Meta-analysis of three trials showed significant differences in mean follow-up scores favouring intervention 2 over control. The remaining four studies did not show differences in depression between intervention and control groups. Burden: Nine studies evaluated burden and were examined in two meta-analyses (mean scores at follow-up and mean change scores from baseline to follow-up), neither of which found a benefit for intervention over control. Using the GRADE system we judged the quality of evidence to be very low for depression and low for burden, knowledge and predeath grief, reducing our confidence in any of the effect estimates. Conclusion: There was not sufficient evidence to support nor refute the effectiveness of education on progression of dementia on carers' knowledge and mental health.

Background: Research has demonstrated that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of

AimDementia is one of the common causes of death worldwide. The progressive nature of dementia can cause chronic grief among caregivers, increasing the risk of developing persistent complex bereavement disorder (DSM 5, 2013). According to the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) white paper (2014), education on the progression of dementia should be provided to the family of an individual with dementia. This systematic review aims to examine the effect of educational interventions focusing on providing information regarding the progression of dementia to informal caregivers.MethodMEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL were searched in March 2017. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with samples of informal carers who are providing day-to-day caring for an individual with dementia living in the community were eligible. Included interventions were educational programmes that involve a component aimed to increase carer’s understanding of the progression of dementia. Two authors independently assessed studies for eligibility. Risk of bias of included studies will be assessed independently by two authors.ResultsWe screened 2781 citations and 16 studies were included. Preliminary results suggest that educational interventions may improve knowledge of dementia among carers, and may reduce depression. Reduction in carer burden and stress was also reported in some studies.ConclusionThis is the first systematic review to consider the potential benefit of recommendations in the EAPC white paper. Based on these preliminary results, prior to full critique and review analysis, there is some evidence from individual studies to support the effectiveness of educational intervention in improving carers’ knowledge in dementia.References. Van der Steen, J. T., Radbruch, L., Hertogh, C. M., de Boer, M. E., Hughes, J. C., Larkin, P., & Koopmans, R. T. (2014). White paper defining optimal palliative care in older people with dementia: a Delphi study and recommendations from the European Association for Palliative Care. Palliative medicine, 28(3), 197–209.. American Psychiatric Association. (2013).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.