Representing informal caregivers of older adults in occupation-focused research: A critical interpretive synthesis

ABSTRACT Within the current demographic and political context, it is likely there will be increasing reliance on informal caregivers in the provision of care to older adults in Western nations. This critical interpretive synthesis explored how informal caregiving has been conceptualized and researched in the occupation-based literature. Five occupation-focused journals were searched for articles on informal caregiving for older adults, resulting in 17 primary research articles. Analysis of these articles revealed that there has been an increasing focus on the experiences of caregivers (as opposed to divided focus between caregivers and care recipients) and that transactional perspectives and exploration of co-occupations have expanded the scope of the literature in this field. This synthesis points to a need to turn greater attention to diversity among informal caregivers, particularly in relation to gender and gender identity and raises concerns regarding lack of critical attention to informal caregiving as embedded in social relations of power. An occupational perspective can contribute to research on informal caregiving by generating knowledge regarding how this occupation is shaped in relation to contextual and political elements and has the potential to illuminate implications for the occupations of caregivers and care recipients.