Key result
Physical activity interventions for family caregivers demonstrated variable methodological quality and poor reporting of external validity, with maintenance reported in only 2% of studies.
Why the study?
Do physical activity interventions improve outcomes in family caregivers?
Systematic Review
Do physical activity interventions improve outcomes in family caregivers?
The lack of reporting on internal and external validity components in physical activity interventions for family caregivers hinders their integration into clinical or community settings.
Variable quality and poor external validity reporting hinder clinical integration of caregiver physical activity interventions; extends need for rigorous trials reporting maintenance.
BACKGROUND: Family caregivers are an important health care resource and represent a significant proportion of Canadian and US populations. Family caregivers suffer physical and psychological health problems because of being in the caregiver role. Interventions to support caregiver health, including physical activity (PA), are slow to be investigated and translated into practice. PURPOSE: To examine the evidence for PA interventions in caregivers and determine factors hampering the uptake of this evidence into practice. METHODS: A systematic review and evaluation of internal and external validity using the RE-AIM (Reach, Efficacy/Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework was conducted. Randomized controlled trials or pretest/posttest studies of PA interventions were included. RESULTS: Fourteen studies were published between 1997 and 2015. Methodological quality of studies and risk of bias was variable. External validity criteria were often not reported. Mean reporting levels were 1) reach, 53%; 2) efficacy/effectiveness, 73%; 3) adoption, 18%; 4) implementation, 48%; and 5) maintenance, 2%. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of reporting of components of internal and external validity hinders the integration of caregiver PA interventions into clinical or community settings. Researchers should focus on standardized outcomes, accepted reporting criteria, and balancing factors of internal and external validity, to advance the state of the science.
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Cuthbert et al. (2017) conducted a systematic review in Family caregivers. Physical activity interventions was evaluated on Reporting levels of RE-AIM (Reach, Efficacy/Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) components. Physical activity interventions for family caregivers demonstrated variable methodological quality and poor reporting of external validity, with maintenance reported in only 2% of studies.
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