Social Support Through the Use of ICT for Caregivers of the Chronically Ill: State of the Art

The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in this new era is necessary, especially to provide social support in health services. Objective: Characterize academic and scientific output and identify the strategies and trends in social support using ICT with family caregivers of chronically ill persons in America during the period from 1996 to 2009. Materials and methods: A descriptive review of documents with a cross-sectional design developed through a database search. The Hoyos method for preparing record cards was used to design a matrix for the document analysis. Results: Thirty-one articles published between 1996 and 2009 were selected for this study on the state of the art. All existing literature on social support through the use of ICT is found in North America. It is predominantly in English, and most of the articles were published in 2004: 14 quantitative and 13 qualitative studies that measure quality, satisfaction, access, information provided, and follow-up strategies. Conclusions: The use of ICT with family caregivers of the chronically ill has a protective effect that leads to improvement in their physical and mental health. The most widely used ICT are Internet and the telephone. The importance of incorporating ICT in the Colombian context and in nursing practice through research projects is recognized.