title: Caregiving services in spinal cord injury: a systematic review of the literature.
abstract: METHODS
  PRISMA guided systematic review.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To summarize and characterize the literature pertaining to the nature of and factors associated with caregiving services provided to individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and identify areas for interventional research to address the needs of care recipients.
  
  
  METHODS
  PUBMED/Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Social Services Abstracts and Social Work Abstracts databases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative and quantitative peer-reviewed publications that were written in English were included if they described the nature of caregiving services in SCI, factors influencing the use of and access to caregiving services or described interventions to address caregiving needs of individuals with SCI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixteen papers were selected. The level of evidence for included studies ranged from 2 (highest) to 5 (lowest). Eleven studies described the nature of caregiving services, demographics of caregivers and recipients and factors associated with requiring care. Five studies described caregiving interventions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caregiving services in SCI are predominantly provided by informal caregivers who are female. Quality of care from informal caregivers matches or exceeds quality of formal care. Total hours of care are dependent on the injury level and severity and care needs of the individual. Caregiver training is an important theme and has positive preliminary results on the quality of care provided. Intervention-based research is limited; further research to increase independence in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living would reduce the need for caregiving hours.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Graduate Program in Rehabilitation Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|Rehabilitation Research Program, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, Laval University, Quebec, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Boucher
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Research Program, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.|Department of Occupational Sciences and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000451:nursing*