Technology-Based Caregiver Intervention Research: Current Status and Future Directions

In response to the high prevalence of caregiving and the negative health effects associ-ated with caring for a chronically ill or disabled family member, researchers have designed and tested a wide range of intervention strategies aimed at helping the care-giver. In this review we systematically examine the role of technology in caregiver inter-ventions. Three specific questions are addressed: (i) What do we mean by technology when applied to the caregiving context? (ii) What types of technology have been used in caregiving intervention research and have they been effective? and (iii) What direc-tion might future research take in this area? A systematic review of the literature yield-ed 22 studies which are grouped into three categories based on the general goals of the study: those that report technology-based interventions designed to improve physical or psychosocial health of the caregiver, those that promote independent functioning of the care recipient or older adult at risk, and methodological studies that focus on the devel-opment and evaluation of technology-based approaches to health status assessment rel-evant to the caregiving context. On the whole, these studies show that existing tech-nologies are both acceptable and feasible, although assessments of their impact are