Intergenerational relationships and the design of support interventions for informal caregivers of older adults in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review

The 2021 census saw Ghana's aged population at about 1.99 million, with informal, family-based caregiving being the most common model of eldercare in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In 2024, the scoping review of caregiver burden in Ghana only identified nine eligible studies, and explicitly requested studies that would inform culturally appropriate intervention development. Globally, caregiver-support interventions have been reviewed extensively, but recent syntheses have drawn primarily on European and North American databases and languages, leaving SSA intervention literature underrepresented. Intergenerational Solidarity Theory (IST) which encompasses the structural, associational, affectual, consensual, functional and normative dimensions of family relations has been applied to caregiving decisions and, in a few studies outside Africa, directly to the design of intervention. No existing review has mapped whether or how intergenerational/relational dynamics are incorporated into the design of caregiver support interventions specifically within SSA. The purpose of this review is to fill this gap and directly inform a subsequent primary study that will develop a relationship-informed caregiver practice guide in Ghana.