Abstract
Objective
To describe and synthesize the literature on adult traumatic brain injury (TBI) family
caregiver and dyad intervention. TBI is a common injury that has a significant long-term
impact, and is sometimes even characterized as a chronic condition. Informal (ie,
unpaid) family caregivers of adults with TBI experience high rates of burnout, depression,
fatigue, anxiety, lower subjective well-being, and poorer levels of physical health
compared to noncaregivers. This study addresses the critical gap in the understanding
of interventions designed to address the impact of TBI on adult patients and their
family caregivers.
Data Sources
PubMed and MEDLINE.
Study Selection
Studies selected for review had to be written in English and be quasi-experimental
or experimental in design, report on TBI caregivers, survivors with heavy involvement
of caregivers, or caregiver dyads, involve moderate and severe TBI, and describe an
intervention implemented during some portion of the TBI care continuum.
Data Extraction
The search identified 2171 articles, of which 14 met our criteria for inclusion. Of
the identified studies, 10 were randomized clinical trials and 4 were nonrandomized
quasi-experimental studies. A secondary search to describe studies that included individuals
with other forms of acquired brain injury in addition to TBI resulted in 852 additional
titles, of which 5 met our inclusion criteria.
Data Synthesis
Interventions that targeted the caregiver primarily were more likely to provide benefit
than those that targeted caregiver/survivor dyad or the survivor only. Many of the
studies were limited by poor fidelity, low sample sizes, and high risk for bias based
on randomization techniques.
Conclusions
Future studies of TBI caregivers should enroll a more generalizable number of participants
and ensure adequate fidelity to properly compare interventions.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), RCT (randomized controlled trial), TBI (traumatic brain injury), TREND (Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 09, 2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
