Web-based interventions on the resilience of informal caregivers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Informal caregivers play an increasingly important role in the provision of care services, especially for the ageing population. At present, the evidence on the resilience of the Internet to family caregivers is still limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factors related to the resilience of the Internet to family caregivers. We searched retrieved randomized controlled trials (rct) of the effects of Internet interventions on resilience in informal caregivers from the beginning of the database to 1 November 2022. A preliminary search identified 3348 studies, 5 of which met the inclusion criteria. The studies involved 482 participants from four countries. Our results show that compared to the control group, internet intervention can effectively improve the resilience level of caregivers [SMD = 0.65, 95%CI(0.04，1.26), P ≤ 0.05]. In our study, Web-based interventions can significantly improve the adaptability of informal caregivers. In addition, our research also pointed out many resources that can be used, such as online learning, online answers and online psychological counseling provided for caregivers through the Internet, which can effectively reduce their burden of care and thus improve their resilience. In the future, these findings can be used to develop projects to improve the resilience of caregivers through personalized Internet intervention, so as to meet the care needs of patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet
• caregiver
• resilience
• psychological
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

Not applicable; PROSPERO ID: The review was registered on PROSPERO (registration number:CRD42022335820); Funding: This work was supported by the project of Sichuan Medical and Health Rule of Law Research Center “Research on Pension Risk Based on Artificial Intelligence Background”(YF22-Z08), the 2021 Sichuan Provincial Grass roots Health Development Research Center funded project “Health Risk Assessment and Prevention Strategy for Migrant Bird Elderly Care in Chengdu Chongqing Ecological Healthy Community” of North Sichuan Medical College(SWFZ21-Z-01).Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Sichuan Province 2021-2023 Higher Education Talent Training Quality and Teaching Reform Project (No. JG2021-791), the Sichuan Medical and Health Rule of Law Research Center's project ”Research on Elderly Care Risk Based on Artificial Intelligence Background” (No. YF22-Z08), and the Sichuan Applied Psychology Research Center of Chengdu Medical College (No.CSXL-212A10).