Abstract
Background
Caregiving can adversely impact individuals’ psychosocial and physical well-being. An important task in health research is to find effective ways to enhance caregivers’ health and functioning.
Purpose
To provide a systematic review of the efficacy of physical activity (PA) interventions for caregivers on their and the care recipients’ psychosocial outcomes, PA levels, and physical health.
Methods
Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist, a descriptive systematic review of studies examining the effects of PA interventions for caregivers on their outcomes and those of the care recipients was conducted. Studies were primarily identified through searching electronic databases.
Results
Fourteen studies were reviewed. PA interventions significantly decreased caregivers’ distress and increased their well-being, quality of life, sleep quality, PA levels, self-efficacy for caregiving or exercise, and readiness for exercise. Most PA interventions targeted the caregiver alone. Two studies examined the impact of the intervention on the care recipient and found no significant effect.
Conclusions
PA interventions hold promise in improving caregivers’ outcomes. However, more high quality trials are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn.
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Acknowledgments
SL is supported by a FRQS Research Scholar Award – Junior 1. This review was conducted in the context of a study funded by Prostate Cancer Canada.
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Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards
Authors Sylvie Lambert, Lindsay R. Duncan, Sophia Kapellas, Anne-Marie Bruson, Melanie Myrand, Daniel Santa Mina, Nicole Culos-Reed, and Angella Lambrou declare that they have no conflict of interest. As this is a review, ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000, do not apply.
Electronic Supplementary Material
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Electronic Supplementary Appendix S1
PRISMA Checklist (DOCX 22.6 kb)
Electronic Supplementary Appendix S2
Example of search strategy—Medline database (DOCX 487 kb)
Electronic Supplementary Appendix S3
Methodological quality of included studies (DOCX 36 kb)
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Lambert, S.D., Duncan, L.R., Kapellas, S. et al. A Descriptive Systematic Review of Physical Activity Interventions for Caregivers: Effects on Caregivers’ and Care Recipients’ Psychosocial Outcomes, Physical Activity Levels, and Physical Health. ann. behav. med. 50, 907–919 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9819-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-016-9819-3