A systematic review of telehealth tools and interventions to support family caregivers

Abstract

Summary We conducted a systematic review of studies employing telehealth interventions which focused on family caregivers’ outcomes. The Embase, CINHAL, Cochrane and PubMed databases were searched using combinations of keywords including “telehealth,” “telemedicine,” “telecare,” “telemonitoring,” “caregiver” and “family.” The initial search produced 4205 articles, of which 65 articles met the inclusion criteria. The articles included 52 experimental studies, 11 evaluation studies, one case study and one secondary analysis. Thirty-three articles focused on family caregivers of adult and older patients, while 32 articles focused on parental caregivers of paediatric patients. The technologies included video, web-based, telephone-based and telemetry/remote monitoring. Six main categories of interventions were delivered via technology: education, consultation (including decision support), psychosocial/cognitive behavioural therapy (including problem solving training), social support, data collection and monitoring, and clinical care delivery. More than 95% of the studies reported significant improvements in the caregivers’ outcomes and that caregivers were satisfied and comfortable with telehealth. The review showed that telehealth can positively affect chronic disease care, home and hospice care.

Impact of Health Information Technologies in Nursing Practices

“…The review also found that telehealth implementations made important contributions to the care of patients with chronic diseases, home care, and hospice care [13]. A systematic review about the effectiveness of tele-monitoring in individuals with heart disease evaluated 18 studies and determined that this implementation produced positive results.…”

New Frontiers in Healthcare and Technology: Internet-and Web-Based Mental Options Emerge to Complement In-Person and Telepsychiatric Care Options

“…Many Internet-based materials and opportunities to learn exist for caregivers of patients, for those with MH (dementia, schizophrenia, anorexia) and medical disorders [12]. Services included webcasts, discussion boards, online classes, learning modules, and chat rooms; the best outcomes were best for satisfaction and comfort with services via cell phones [61]. Continuing medical education resources [62] are increasingly available.…”

Telemedicine Use Among Caregivers of Cancer Patients: Systematic Review (Preprint)

“…However, when it comes to telehealth interventions aimed at family members of adult cancer patients, the picture is less definite. Scoping reviews have been conducted only on web-based interventions or on the effects of eHealth tools for patients and informal caregivers confronted with the problem of cancer [41,45,46], while others have a broader focus on all implemented telehealth tools for family caregivers, but not specifically adopted in cancer care [39]. Therefore, there is still an emerging need of a more complete framework regarding implemented carers' telemedicine tools in all phases of cancer care.…”

“…Even though much has been done concerning patient empowerment, more attention is needed on the effects and support of telemedicine on family caregivers and on how promising e-health programmes are in responding to their needs [39,40]. Despite caregivers' requests for provision of support and information competence, a recent meta-review on the effects of eHealth for patients and informal caregivers confronted with cancer concludes that there is a paucity of systematic reviews on this topic and that web-based interventions focused on family members are still an unexplored area [41].…”