title: Communication in the context of long-distance family caregiving: an integrated review and practical applications.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Understanding how geographic distance impacts how individuals communicatively negotiate family caregiving is important for a number of reasons. Though long-distance caregiving (LDC) is a growing phenomenon with serious relational and health implications, this topic has yet to be approached from a communication perspective. In this review, LDC is thus considered as a communication context to offer caregiving scholars practical applications for contributing to this emerging research area.
  
  
  METHODS
  Review of the literature from 1999 to 2009 that studied aspects of distance caregiving communication obtained through searching Academic Search Premier, EBSCO, Communication and Mass Media Complete, PsycArticles, PsycInfo, PubMed/Medline, and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition online databases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight published original research studies were included in the review.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The extent to which LDC communication is studied by caregiving researchers has the potential to provide helpful guidance for distant caregivers and care recipients to achieve successful health and relational outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Upon reviewing distance caregiving communication research findings, four applications are discussed: (1) defining distance as a subjective experience; (2) encouraging the use of mediated communication in LDC; and examining (3) interpersonal conflict and (4) topic avoidance processes in the LDC context.
authors.affiliation: Communication Studies and Health Communication M.S. Program, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USA. bevan@chapman.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bevan
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sparks
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D003142:Communication; D005195:Family Relations; D006801:Humans; D012111:Residence Characteristics