Cancer Caregiver Quality of Life: Meta-Analysis

Abstract People living with cancer benefit greatly from informal caregivers. There has never been a previous meta-analysis on the quality of life of cancer caregivers or the efficacy of caregiver intervention programmes. The goal of this meta-analysis was to look at the quality of life of cancer caregivers and the impact of various initiatives aimed at improving it. From January 2006 to April 2021, a comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, PubMed Central, Clinical Key, Google Scholar and Cochrane database. The effect of caregiver interventional programs on quality of life was evaluated using a mean difference between experimental and control groups. A random-effect model was used to measure the risk ratio (RR) for calculating the quality of life of cancer caregivers. The final report comprised eight trials with a total of 1142 participants. The caregiver intervention programme was found to improve the quality of life of cancer caregivers, but not statistically significantly (mean difference=0.10; p<0.00001). A caregiver interventional program had a positive effect on the quality of life of cancer caregivers, according to this meta-analysis. To prove that caregiver interventional programs are successful strategies for improving the quality of life of cancer caregivers, further randomised controlled trials are required.