Effects of Grief Focused Intervention on the Mental Health of Dementia Caregivers: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: The objectives of this study were to review systematically the effects of grief-focused interventions, applied to dementia caregivers, on emotional burden including sadness and to provide baseline information for dementia caregivers to maintain mental health by identifying the effect size of intervention using a meta-analysis.

Methods: We evaluated literature published from Jan 1, 2000, to Jun 28, 2019. Consequently, we selected five studies to conduct a systematic review. The Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields was used for conducting a quality assessment on the selected literature.

Results: The results of the quality assessment showed that the score ranged from 11 to 24 points: one strong, one good, two adequate, and one limited. When the meta-mean was compared before and after grief intervention, the effect size of the random-effect model was 0.31 (95% CI: -0.07, 0.69) showed 'intermediate effect', but the confidence interval was not significant.

Conclusion: The grief intervention for dementia caregivers revealed a moderate effect but it was not significant. In order to prove the effectiveness of grief intervention for dementia caregivers, a meta-analysis targeting RCT studies is needed.

Keywords: Dementia caregivers; Grief intervention; Meta-analysis; Systematic review.

Fig. 1:

Flow of studies included from the database search

Fig. 2:

Radial plot of studies

Fig. 3:

Forest plot showing the grief intervention effects on dementia caregivers

Fig. 4:

Forest plot showing the grief intervention effects on dementia caregivers

Fig. 5:

Cumulative meta-analysis about the grief intervention effects on dementia caregivers