Objective:

To review the scientific documentation related to the quality of life (QoL) of caregivers of adults in home care services.

Method:

Critical and systematic review. The data were obtained from consulting the bibliographic databases: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Cochrane Library and Embase. The terms used, as descriptors and as text in the title and abstract registration fields, were «Quality of Life», «Caregivers» and «Home Care Services», using the filters «Humans», «Adult: 19+ years “And” Clinical Trial “. Date of the last update of the search October 2020. The documentary quality of the articles was evaluated using the CONSORT questionnaire.

Results:

From 217 references retrieved, after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 29 clinical trials were selected. CONSORT scores ranged from a minimum of 9.5 to a maximum of 20.5 with a median of 16 (maximum possible score of 21). According to the SIGN criteria, this review presented evidence «1+» (systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials with low risk of bias) with a grade of recommendation A. The most used questionnaires to assess QoL were the generic European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) and the Short Form Health Survey 36 items (SF-36), on 4 occasions. The intervention that was carried out with the highest frequency was the training of caregivers, in 10 trials.

Conclusions:

Training and helping the caregiver led to an improvement in their quality of life and an improvement in anxiety levels. Although, in some trials no differences were found between the intervention group and the control group. The fact of intervening (worrying about the caregiver) led to a lesser burden on their mood, although without clearly significant results.

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