Psychological outcomes and support in grandparents whose grandchildren suffer from a severe physical illness: A systematic review.

Priboi, Cristina; Gantner, Barbara; Holmer, Pauline; Neves da Silva, Luisa; Tinner, Eva Maria; Roser, Katharina; Michel, Gisela (2022). Psychological outcomes and support in grandparents whose grandchildren suffer from a severe physical illness: A systematic review. Heliyon, 8(5), e09365. Elsevier 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09365

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Objective

When a child is facing a severe physical illness, the entire family is affected. Grandparents provide invaluable emotional and practical support to families dealing with this situation, but little is known about the psychological impact on them. We aimed to synthesize the evidence on 1) the psychological outcomes experienced by grandparents when a grandchild is seriously ill and 2) the psychological support needed and used by grandparents.

Methods

We systematically searched four databases with the search terms "grandchild", "grandparents", "psychological outcomes" and "severe diseases", and we used narrative synthesis to analyze the extracted data.

Results

Our search identified 3319 records of which 12 were included in the analysis. Grandparents reported experiencing a wide spectrum of feelings, with fear being the most prevalent feeling. Grandparents rarely accessed professional services due to their lack of knowledge about available programs or because of the absence of formal services addressing their needs. In consequence, grandparents asked and received informal support from other family members, friends or their church community.

Conclusion

Grandparents need to be better informed about their grandchild's disease and the available support services in order to reduce their psychological burden and to better attend to the needs of the other family members.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Review Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Endocrinology (DFKE) > Clinic of Paediatric Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Endocrinology (DFKE) > Clinic of Paediatric Medicine > Paediatric Haematology/Oncology

UniBE Contributor:

Tinner Oehler, Eva Maria Eugenia

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

2405-8440

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Anette van Dorland

Date Deposited:

23 May 2022 09:41

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:20

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09365

PubMed ID:

35592660

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Grandparent Psychological outcomes Severe illness Support

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/170156

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/170156

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