Article

OBJECTIVES: To examine the economic evidence for interventions aimed at family
carers of stroke patients.
DATA SOURCES: Searches (limited to those published in
English since 1990) were performed in key databases along with hand searches of
relevant papers. METHODS: Papers were restricted to studies including any
economic data (broadly defined) for any intervention targeting carers explicitly
or explicitly referring to a carer element, beyond involving carers in the care
or intervention for patients
(i.e. more than just carers being invited to observe
an intervention targeted at the patient). Two reviewers independently screened
full papers and extracted data using guidance from the National Institute for
Health and Care Excellence, and quality assessment using the Newcastle-Ottawa
Quality Assessment Scale (cohort studies), the Delphi list (randomised controlled
trials) and guidelines on economic quality from the British Medical Journal. Data
were reviewed descriptively as meta analyses were inappropriate due to
non-comparability of studies. RESULTS: Ten papers were included in the review.
These were heterogeneous in their design, intervention and economic analyses
making comparison difficult. Only three of the ten papers included economic
evaluations. All three reported that the intervention was less costly and had
better or equivalent outcomes than the control comparator although two of these
were based on the same intervention using the same dataset. CONCLUSION:
There is some limited evidence that interventions for family carers of stroke patients are
effective and cost effective. However, due to variation in the types of
interventions examined, little can be concluded regarding implications for
clinical practice.
CI - (c) The Author(s) 2015.

Langue : ANGLAIS