Sörensen, S., Pinquart, M., & Duberstein, P. (2002). How effective are interventions with caregivers? An updated meta-analysis. Gerontologist, 42, 356–372.

MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and PSYNDEX electronic databases were used, as well as ancestry method using the search terms caregiver or carer or caregiving, intervention or support or training, and elderly or old age. Study statistics that could be converted to effect sizes also were used.

Seventy-eight studies of caregiver interventions in which an intervention condition was compared with a control group were evaluated.

• The sample represented a mixed caregiver population, primarily of patients with dementia (which included older adults with physical disabilities or mental illness), patients who had experienced a stroke, and patients with cancer.
• The mean or median care recipient age was ≥ 60 years.
• Sample sizes in the intervention condition ranged from 4 to 2,268.

Immediate pre- and post-tests on burden were significant. The effect of multicomponent interventions was significantly larger than those of psychoeducation, respite or day care, training of the care recipient, and miscellaneous interventions. The larger the proportion of adult children participating in the intervention, the greater the improvements in burden. Interventions with older caregivers and caregivers with older care recipients yielded larger improvements of burden. Psychotherapy and psychoeducational interventions also were effective in reducing burden. Interventions delivered to individuals were more effective than interventions offered in group sessions. In studies where caregivers provided support for more hours, less improvement in burden was found.

• Multiple dimensions of burden were not disaggregated.
• Many studies had missing data.
• Delivery characteristics were sometimes confounded.
• A selection bias may have existed.
• The study controlled for only some of the possible moderators.
• Efficacy was not evaluated.