Living with Chronic Illness from the Family Perspective:An Integrative Review

Living with chronic illness has an impact on the family's wellbeing and quality of life. An integrative review was conducted to identify and analyse the existing scales that evaluate the process of living with chronic illness or related factors of daily living from the family perspective. A search was developed in Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Cuiden and Scielo databases until May 2019. From 5,344 identified articles, 13 studies were eligible for inclusion. 16 scales were identified and assessed constructs related to the concept of living with chronic illness, including quality of life; perceptions and needs; life satisfaction and well-being; impact; and psychological adjustment to the disease. However, these scales do not measure the family process of living with chronic illness from a comprehensive perspective. This review highlights the need to develop and validate a scale that evaluates the multidimensional nature of living with chronic illness from the family perspective.

Automated summary

Existing scales evaluating living with chronic illness focus on aspects like quality of life and psychological adjustment, but lack a comprehensive perspective from the family's point of view. The review emphasizes the necessity to develop and validate a multidimensional scale that assesses living with chronic illness from the family perspective.