Pasacreta, J.V., & McCorkle, R. (2000). Cancer care: Impact of interventions on caregiver outcomes. Annual Review of Nursing Research, 18, 127–148.

Manual search and MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycInfo database searches using the search terms caregiver, caregiving, family, cancer, outcomes, interventions, quality of life, coping, and psychological distress were used.

Twenty-nine articles that described interventions aimed at assisting caregivers of patients with cancer were reviewed. Quality of life, knowledge about pain, caregiver burden, depression, psychological adjustment or functioning, and anxiety were not clearly defined in many of the studies.

Psychosocial status and aspects of caregiver quality of life improved, although improvement in burden not was not described. The effectiveness of interventions to reduce caregiver burden or strain was not established.

• The review was not limited to studies that associated interventions with outcomes and did not critique individual studies.
• Interventions often were not clearly described, and well-delineated outcome variables were lacking.
• Small sample sizes and attrition were problems.
• Randomized trials were lacking.
• Most studies revealed selection bias, often to well-adjusted caregivers.