Dementia Caregiver Grief and Bereavement: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias make up the fifth leading cause of death for individuals of 65 years of age and older in the United States. Seventy percent of these individuals will die in long-term care settings. The aim of this integrative review was to examine and synthesize the evidence on grief and bereavement in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias caregivers. This review identified five critical gaps in the existing evidence: (a) a lack of ethnic and gender diversity among caregivers studied, (b) limited use of valid instruments to study dementia caregiver grief and bereavement, (c) no substantive research examining dementia caregiver grief and bereavement for caregivers whose family members die in long-term care, (d) a lack of evidence examining the effect of hospice services on dementia caregiver grief and bereavement, and (e) a lack of grief and bereavement interventions for dementia caregivers whose family members die in long-term care.