The effect of nursing interventions on empowering caregiver of stroke patients: A META-analysis study

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of nursing interventions for the empowerment of caregivers of stroke patients. Seven research questions were determined and MEDLINE (OVID), WoS, Scopus, ScienceDirect, THE COCHRANE LIBRARY, ClinicalTrials.gov, ProQuest, PubMed, SOBİAD Citation Index, TR Index, National Thesis Center, AHRQ databases were searched. The words "stroke", "caregiver", "nursing interventions", "empowerment" were searched and 16 studies were included in systematic reviews and 15 studies were included in meta-analyses (N=2556). Hedges' g statistic was used for the effect size (ES) , I2 was used for heterogeneity of the studies, and methodological quality of the studies was evaluated with JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Randomized Controlled Trials. The sample of the studies; n=1639 individuals. The quality of 6 studies was high, and 10 studies was moderate. While nursing interventions increase the caregiver's quality of life (n=7; Hedges' g ES=0.905; p=0.041; 95% CI; 0.030-1.420; I2= 92.3%) and care knowledge (n=2; Hedges' g ES= 1.468; p<0.001; 95% CI; 0.761-2.126; I2=73.1%), provide social support (n=4; Hedges' g ES=0.592; p=0.041; 95% CI; 0.025-1.159; I2= 86.3%), reduce burden of care (n=11; Hedges' g ES=-0.465; p=0.001; 95% CI; -0.783-(-0.193); I2=73.8%) and symptoms of depression (n=4; Hedges' g ES=-0.229; p=0.034; 95% CI; -0.441-(-0.017); I2=10.0%), it was not effective in improving coping strategy (n=4; Hedges' g ES=-0.088; p=0.799; 95% CI: -0.765-0.580); I2=89.6% and reducing stress (n=3; Hedges' g ES=-0.442; p=0.651; 95% CI; -2.357-1.473; I2=97.3%). As a result of systematic review and meta-analysis of the studies, nursing interventions show a high effect on improving the caregiver's quality of life and on increasing care knowledge; a moderate effect on providing social support; a small effect on reducing caregiver burden and depression symptoms. Keywords: Caregiver, caregiving, empowerment, stroke, meta-analysis