Articles: caregivers.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jun 2013
Review Meta AnalysisEffectiveness and cost-effectiveness of home palliative care services for adults with advanced illness and their caregivers.
Extensive evidence shows that well over 50% of people prefer to be cared for and to die at home provided circumstances allow choice. Despite best efforts and policies, one-third or less of all deaths take place at home in many countries of the world. ⋯ The results provide clear and reliable evidence that home palliative care increases the chance of dying at home and reduces symptom burden in particular for patients with cancer, without impacting on caregiver grief. This justifies providing home palliative care for patients who wish to die at home. More work is needed to study cost-effectiveness especially for people with non-malignant conditions, assessing place of death and appropriate outcomes that are sensitive to change and valid in these populations, and to compare different models of home palliative care, in powered studies.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Mar 2013
Review Meta AnalysisCommunication skills training for healthcare professionals working with people who have cancer.
This is an updated version of a review that was originally published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2004, Issue 2. People with cancer, their families and carers have a high prevalence of psychological stress which may be minimised by effective communication and support from their attending healthcare professionals (HCPs). Research suggests communication skills do not reliably improve with experience, therefore, considerable effort is dedicated to courses that may improve communication skills for HCPs involved in cancer care. A variety of communication skills training (CST) courses have been proposed and are in practice. We conducted this review to determine whether CST works and which types of CST, if any, are the most effective. ⋯ Various CST courses appear to be effective in improving some types of HCP communication skills related to information gathering and supportive skills. We were unable to determine whether the effects of CST are sustained over time, whether consolidation sessions are necessary, and which types of CST programs are most likely to work. We found no evidence to support a beneficial effect of CST on HCP 'burnout', patients' mental or physical health, and patient satisfaction.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2013
Review Meta AnalysisSleep and sleep-wake disturbances in care recipient-caregiver dyads in the context of a chronic illness: a critical review of the literature.
Alterations in sleep-wake patterns of care recipients and their informal caregivers are common in the context of a chronic illness. Given the current notion that sleep may be regulated within and affected by close human relationships, concurrent and interrelated sleep problems may be present in care recipient-caregiver dyads. ⋯ The dyadic investigation of sleep is a promising approach to the development of truly effective interventions to improve sleep quality of care recipients and their caregivers. Nevertheless, more systematic, longitudinal dyadic research is warranted to augment our understanding of co-occurrence and over time changes of sleep problems in care recipient-caregiver dyads, as well as to clarify covariates/factors that appear to contribute to these problems within the dyad and across time and context of illness.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Nov 2012
Review Meta AnalysisEmail for clinical communication between patients/caregivers and healthcare professionals.
Email is a popular and commonly-used method of communication, but its use in health care is not routine. Where email communication has been demonstrated in health care this has included its use for communication between patients/caregivers and healthcare professionals for clinical purposes, but the effects of using email in this way is not known.This review addresses the use of email for two-way clinical communication between patients/caregivers and healthcare professionals. ⋯ The evidence base was found to be limited with variable results and missing data, and therefore it was not possible to adequately assess the effect of email for clinical communication between patients/caregivers and healthcare professionals. Recommendations for clinical practice could not be made. Future research should ideally address the issue of missing data and methodological concerns by adhering to published reporting standards. The rapidly changing nature of technology should be taken into account when designing and conducting future studies and barriers to trial development and implementation should also be tackled. Potential outcomes of interest for future research include cost-effectiveness and health service resource use.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Nov 2012
Review Meta AnalysisInformation provision for stroke patients and their caregivers.
Research shows that stroke patients and their families are dissatisfied with the information provided and have a poor understanding of stroke and associated issues. ⋯ There is evidence that information improves patient and carer knowledge of stroke, aspects of patient satisfaction, and reduces patient depression scores. However, the reduction in depression scores was small and may not be clinically significant. Although the best way to provide information is still unclear there is some evidence that strategies that actively involve patients and carers and include planned follow-up for clarification and reinforcement have a greater effect on patient mood.