Currently submitted to: JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies
Date Submitted: Jan 22, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 12, 2026 - Apr 9, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Digital Health Interventions and Quality of Life Among Family Caregivers of Stroke Survivors: A Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and often transfers substantial care responsibilities to family and informal caregivers. These demands contribute to multidimensional caregiver burden and reduced quality of life (QoL), including psychological distress, social limitations, and financial strain. Digital health interventions—such as mobile applications, messaging-based education, telehealth, and web-based platforms—have the potential to extend caregiver support beyond conventional face-to-face services; however, evidence regarding their impact on caregiver QoL remains heterogeneous.
Objective:
This scoping review aimed to map and characterize digital health interventions used in stroke caregiving and to summarize their associations with caregiver QoL–related outcomes, including caregiver burden, psychological well-being, empowerment or capability, usability, and access.
Methods:
A scoping review was conducted in accordance with Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidance and reported following PRISMA-ScR. Searches were performed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Google Scholar for English-language studies published between 2019 and 2025. Two reviewers independently screened studies and extracted data using a standardized charting form. Evidence was mapped descriptively by intervention type, delivery characteristics, study design maturity, and caregiver outcome domains.
Results:
From 676 identified records, 20 studies met the inclusion criteria. Digital interventions were primarily delivered through mobile applications, WhatsApp-based education, telehealth services, or web-based learning platforms. Direct caregiver-focused studies commonly assessed caregiver burden, psychological distress, and caregiving capability, while system-integrated mHealth programs mainly reported patient outcomes with indirect relevance to caregivers. Overall, digital education and follow-up support were associated with reduced caregiver burden and improved caregiver capability and emotional well-being, although outcome measures and follow-up durations varied. Usability, digital literacy, affordability, and connectivity were recurrent barriers.
Conclusions:
Digital health interventions show promise in improving caregiver QoL in stroke care, particularly through structured education and ongoing support. Future studies should emphasize rigorous caregiver-centered trials, standardized QoL measures, longer follow-up, and inclusive designs addressing digital equity.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.