Coping Strategies for Family Caregivers of Older Adults
Author Information
Author(s): Csikai Ellen, Maynard Quentin, Olmos Marina, Hossain M D Sarafat
Primary Institution: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States
Hypothesis
What coping strategies do family caregivers use to manage their caregiving role for older adults with serious medical illnesses?
Conclusion
Family caregivers use various coping strategies to manage the physical and emotional challenges of caregiving.
Supporting Evidence
- Family caregivers often provide many hours of care for years, leading to reduced abilities to cope.
- Caregivers face increased physical and emotional burden when caring for older adults near the end of life.
- A total of 426 articles were initially screened, with eight articles ultimately included in the review.
- Six of the included studies were qualitative and two were quantitative.
- Common coping strategies included problem-solving, emotion-focused coping, and social support.
Takeaway
Family caregivers help older adults who are very sick, and they have to find ways to deal with the hard parts of that job.
Methodology
A scoping literature review of qualitative and quantitative research published since 2012 was conducted.
Limitations
The review included only eight articles that met the inclusion criteria.
Participant Demographics
Community-dwelling family caregivers of older adults with serious medical illness near end of life.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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