The experiences and needs of unpaid family caregivers for persons living with dementia in rural settings: A qualitative systematic review

• Published in: PloS one 2023-06, Vol.18 (6), p.e0286548-e0286548
• Main Authors: Campbell-Enns, Heather J, Bornstein, Stephen, Hutchings, Veronica M M, Janzen, Maya, Kampen, Melanie, O'Brien, Kelli, Rieger, Kendra L, Stewart, Tara, Zendel, Benjamin Rich, Doupe, Malcolm B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Alzheimer's disease; Alzheimers disease; Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Care and treatment; Caregivers; Cognitive ability; Data analysis; Dementia; Dementia disorders; Dissertations & theses; Earth Sciences; Eligibility Determination; Family Health; Health aspects; Humans; Independent Living; Librarians; Medicine and Health Sciences; Older people; Online data bases; Qualitative research; Research and Analysis Methods; Reviews; Rural areas; Rural population; Social aspects; Social networks; Social organization; Social Sciences; Synthesis; Systematic review
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286548

Unpaid family caregivers provide extensive support for community-dwelling persons living with dementia, impacting family caregivers' health and wellbeing. Further, unpaid family caregiving in rural settings has additional challenges because of lower access to services. This systematic review examines qualitative evidence to summarize the experiences and needs of rural unpaid family caregivers of persons living with dementia. CINAHL, SCOPUS, EMBASE, Web of Science, PsychINFO, ProQuest, and Medline were searched for articles investigating the experience and needs of rural family caregivers of persons living with dementia. Eligibility criteria were: 1) original qualitative research; 2) written in the English language; 3) focused on the perspectives of caregivers of community-dwelling persons with dementia; 4) focused on rural settings. Study findings were extracted from each article and a meta-aggregate process was used to synthesize the findings. Of the 510 articles screened, 36 studies were included in this review. Studies were of moderate to high quality and produced 245 findings that were analyzed to produce three synthesized findings: 1) the challenge of dementia care; 2) rural limitations; 3) rural opportunities. Rurality is perceived as a limitation for family caregivers in relation to the scope of services provided but can be perceived as a benefit when caregivers experience trustworthy and helpful social networks in rural settings. Implications for practice include establishing and empowering community groups to partner in the provision of care. Further research must be conducted to better understand the strengths and limitations of rurality on caregiving.