Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions
Background: Providing care for a family member with dementia can leave little time for carers to look after their own health needs, which makes them more susceptible to mental and physical health problems. This scoping review aimed to explore potential health benefits of interventions aimed at impro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Dove Medical Press
2019
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55897/ |
| _version_ | 1848799235672113152 |
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| author | De Oliveira, Deborah Sousa, Lidia Orrell, Martin |
| author_facet | De Oliveira, Deborah Sousa, Lidia Orrell, Martin |
| author_sort | De Oliveira, Deborah |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Background: Providing care for a family member with dementia can leave little time for carers to look after their own health needs, which makes them more susceptible to mental and physical health problems. This scoping review aimed to explore potential health benefits of interventions aimed at improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia.
Methods: A scoping review was carried out using Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Google Scholar databases. Original and peer-reviewed research published in English up to April 2017 were included. Publications were selected by two reviewers independently. Eight experts from several countries provided extra relevant information, which was triangulated with the review results. A narrative approach was used to describe and discuss the review findings.
Results: Seven interventions were identified. These were highly heterogeneous in content, method of delivery and outcome measures. None was specifically focused on improving and evaluating health-promoting self-care, instead they often focused on health promotion and healthy lifestyle (e.g. physical activity). Some of the multi-component interventions included ‘self-care’ as a domain, but as none used a specific measure of health-promoting self-care, so we are unable to affirm that the improvements found in the interventions were due to an improvement in this area. Interventions helped reduce carer depression and burden and increased quality of life, positive affect and physical activity. The expert panel recommended to consider carers’ preparedness and capacity to adhere to self-care practices, as well as carers’ age and culture. Future interventions should be context specific, flexible and person-centered.
Conclusions: Psychosocial interventions may improve health-promoting self-care behavior, but more research is needed to establish efficacy. Interventions should be flexible, use a person-centered approach, be implemented with fidelity and use the right dosage. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:32:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-55897 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:32:27Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Dove Medical Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
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| spelling | nottingham-558972019-01-16T13:12:28Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55897/ Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions De Oliveira, Deborah Sousa, Lidia Orrell, Martin Background: Providing care for a family member with dementia can leave little time for carers to look after their own health needs, which makes them more susceptible to mental and physical health problems. This scoping review aimed to explore potential health benefits of interventions aimed at improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia. Methods: A scoping review was carried out using Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Google Scholar databases. Original and peer-reviewed research published in English up to April 2017 were included. Publications were selected by two reviewers independently. Eight experts from several countries provided extra relevant information, which was triangulated with the review results. A narrative approach was used to describe and discuss the review findings. Results: Seven interventions were identified. These were highly heterogeneous in content, method of delivery and outcome measures. None was specifically focused on improving and evaluating health-promoting self-care, instead they often focused on health promotion and healthy lifestyle (e.g. physical activity). Some of the multi-component interventions included ‘self-care’ as a domain, but as none used a specific measure of health-promoting self-care, so we are unable to affirm that the improvements found in the interventions were due to an improvement in this area. Interventions helped reduce carer depression and burden and increased quality of life, positive affect and physical activity. The expert panel recommended to consider carers’ preparedness and capacity to adhere to self-care practices, as well as carers’ age and culture. Future interventions should be context specific, flexible and person-centered. Conclusions: Psychosocial interventions may improve health-promoting self-care behavior, but more research is needed to establish efficacy. Interventions should be flexible, use a person-centered approach, be implemented with fidelity and use the right dosage. Dove Medical Press 2019-01-08 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55897/1/Accepted%20version%20Clin%20Int%20Aging%208.1.19.pdf De Oliveira, Deborah, Sousa, Lidia and Orrell, Martin (2019) Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions. Clinical Interventions in Aging . ISSN 1178-1998 (In Press) Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Carers; Health promotion; Scoping review; Self-care |
| spellingShingle | Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Carers; Health promotion; Scoping review; Self-care De Oliveira, Deborah Sousa, Lidia Orrell, Martin Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| title | Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| title_full | Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| title_fullStr | Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| title_short | Improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| title_sort | improving health-promoting self-care in family carers of people with dementia: a review of interventions |
| topic | Alzheimer’s disease; Dementia; Carers; Health promotion; Scoping review; Self-care |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55897/ |