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Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Stress Reduction of Family Caregivers of People with Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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Abstract

Caring for people with dementia (PWD) poses a lot of challenges to family caregivers. Mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) is a newly adopted psychosocial intervention through an integration of the mind and body to reduce stress of the participants (caregivers). This study aims to determine whether and to what extent MBI for family caregivers of PWD can reduce their stress. Electronic databases including MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and the Web of Science were searched for relevant studies published between 1990 and 2016. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies evaluating the effects of MBI on reducing stress in family caregivers of PWD were eligible for inclusion in this review. Five studies were included. Of these, three trials involving 144 participants were eligible for the meta-analysis. The analysis showed that stress levels dropped significantly after the MBI. The findings showed a significantly more favorable effect of MBI with the standardized mean difference with a moderate aggregated effect size of 0.57 (95% CI [0.23, 0.92], overall effect Z = 3.25 at p = 0.001). This effect was only found immediately after the MBI but not in the follow-up sessions. In conclusion, the available evidence suggests that MBI seems to be effective at reducing stress among family caregivers of PWD. However, it should be noted that the number of studies involved was small (n = 5), as were the sample sizes, and no sustained effect was found. Multi-center RCTs of the effects of MBI involving larger and more diverse samples of family caregivers of PWD are recommended before any clear conclusion can be reached.

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  1. Centre for Gerontological Nursing, School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China

    Patrick P. K. Kor, Justina Y. W. Liu & Claudia K. Y. Lai

  2. School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China

    Wai Tong Chien

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  1. Patrick P. K. Kor
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PK designed and implemented the review, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper; WTC and JL refined the design, assisted data analysis, and edited the final manuscript; and CL refined the design and edited the final manuscript.

This manuscript has not previously been published. It has not been accepted for publication, nor is it under editorial review for publication elsewhere. All of the authors listed below have made significant contributions to, and are in agreement with, the contents of the manuscript. They are all affiliated with the School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.

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Correspondence to Patrick P. K. Kor.

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Kor, P.P.K., Chien, W.T., Liu, J.Y.W. et al. Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Stress Reduction of Family Caregivers of People with Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Mindfulness 9, 7–22 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0751-9

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