Family caregiving for patients with stroke - Review and analysis

Background-The literature on family caregiving for stroke patients is revie wed with the goals of (1) evaluating the effects of stroke caregiving on ca regivers' well-being, (2) outlining deficiencies and methodological limitat ions of current research, and (3) outlining policy and practice implication s of current studies. Summary of Review-A total of 20 published stroke caregiving research articl es were included in this review. Across studies, the effects of stroke care giving on caregivers' well-being and the significant predictors of caregive rs' depression were analyzed. Current evidence suggests that stroke caregiv ers have elevated levels of depression at both the acute stroke phase and t he chronic stroke phase. However, major gaps are apparent in this literatur e, with few studies addressing such areas as caregiver physical health, eth nicity, and caregiver interventions. Conclusions-Given the increasing prevalence of stroke as well as the increa sing pressures on families to provide care, more research is needed to guid e policy and practice in this understudied topic.