title: Supporting family members of people with traumatic brain injury using telehealth: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the effectiveness of using telehealth programs to provide training or support to family members of people with traumatic brain injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Systematic review.
  
  
  METHODS
  Intervention studies were identified by searching Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, the Cochrane library, Embase, PsycBITE and ProQUEST.
  
  
  METHODS
  Studies included in the review reported an intervention involving family members of adults or children with traumatic brain injury, delivered at a distance through use of technology (including telephone, websites or video-conferencing). Reliability of inclusion of studies in the review was high (Kappa = 0.816) based on a second reviewer evaluating a random sample of 25% of the 830 references originally identified from the database search.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data describing the participants, interventions and outcomes were extracted from each study. The quality of studies was evaluated using the PEDro-P scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The review identified 7 randomised controlled trials, 4 non-randomised controlled trials and 5 case series studies. The studies involved a variety of program formats and intervention targets. All but one study reported positive outcomes of the telehealth programs, however very few studies used blinded assessors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Telehealth programs for family members of people with traumatic brain injury are feasible, with positive outcomes reported. Further research is needed to strengthen the evidence for the use of telehealth in comparison to face-to-face interventions, and to provide information to guide clinical decision-making.
authors.affiliation: Disipline of Speech Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Rachael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rietdijk
authors.forename: Leanne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Togher
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Power
mesh_terms: D001930:Brain Injuries; D005190:Family; D006296:Health Services; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017216:Telemedicine; D013689:Telephone