Providing care to an individual with chronic illness is associated with chronic stress and adverse health outcomes. The link between family caregiving and allostatic load (AL), the cumulative biological burden of chronic stress, is unclear. A scoping review was conducted to examine the extent and nature of existing literature on AL in family caregivers of adults with chronic illness. This scoping review was guided by the framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley and the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews checklist. Peer-reviewed articles published between 2007 and 2025 were identified in CINAHL, APA PsycINFO, and Web of Science with BIOSIS Previews and MEDLINE. Studies met eligibility criteria if they included biological measurement of AL, calculated as an index of multiple biomarkers, in family caregivers of adults living with chronic illness. A total of 10 articles met the eligibility criteria. The findings suggested that, compared to non-caregivers, family caregivers had significantly higher AL and were more likely to experience future illness and disability. Most studies revealed associations among caregiver burden, subjective stress, and elevated AL. The findings suggested that family caregiving is associated with allostatic overload and long term health outcomes. Further research is needed to better understand longitudinal changes in AL during and after a caregiving episode.
Magan et al. (2025) studied this question.