Background: Most people living with dementia live in their own home supported by family carers. One of the most challenging problems they face is managing toilet-use and continence. Carers have repeatedly asked for better advice from healthcare professionals. The purpose of this systematic review was to inform the development of an intervention to support healthcare professionals to provide existing continence management advice to the carers of people living at home with dementia. It aimed to identify and synthesise lessons from the development and evaluation of interventions, involving primary or community healthcare professionals, to support the provision of management advice aimed at supporting people living at home with dementia and their carers with activities of daily living. Due to a lack of relevant continence or toilet-use interventions, this included, but was not limited to, toileting or continence care.
Methods: Literature (February 2009-November 2022) was searched using five databases: MEDLINE (Ovid); PsycINFO (Ovid); EMBASE (Ovid); Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) (EBSCO); and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). Empirical studies using a variety of methodologies were included and thus the quality of papers appraised using the Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool. No studies were excluded based on quality. A narrative synthesis was undertaken.
Results: Twelve articles reporting on 10 interventions were included. Most comprised the provision of online resources only, although some combined these with online or face-to-face contact with healthcare professionals. A variety of methodologies was utilised including randomised controlled trials. The quality of included studies was variable. Six main themes were identified: mode of delivery; targeted and tailored resources; content, design and navigation; credibility; user involvement in the development and evaluation of information resources; and role of professionals and organisations.
Conclusions: Despite the urgent need to better support people living at home with dementia and their carers, this review highlights the paucity of studies reporting on interventions delivered within primary and community healthcare contexts to provide management advice aimed at supporting this population with activities of daily living. This review has identified important considerations that will potentially aid the development, delivery and evaluation of such interventions.
Systematic review registration: PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42022372456.
Keywords: Behavioural interventions; Community care; Continence; Family carers; Healthcare professionals; Non-pharmacological interventions; People living with dementia; Primary care; Systematic review.
© 2024. The Author(s).