Patient-Caregiver Dyad: A Systematic Review Informing a Concept Analysis

The patient-caregiver dyad is becoming more prevalent in literature, but a clear definition of this concept is lacking.This study aimed to clarify the concept within disease-related conditions, either acute with a planned recovery trajectory or chronic with terminal characteristics.Using a systematic review and Rodgers and Knafl's concept analysis process, 28 articles referring to patient-caregiver dyads informed our results.Attributes included the type of caregiver, selecting a caregiver, reaching an agreement, burden of caregiving, and emotions toward the diagnosis.Antecedents were the presence of an acute illness with planned recovery or chronic illness with terminal characteristics and the availability of caregivers.Consequences included patient-caregiver dyads are key to disease management and a directional benefit from the caregiver to the patient.Results of this analysis will assist clinicians and researchers when investigating the synergistic relationship of the patient-caregiver dyad for future theory development and interventional design studies.