Living with chronic illness has an impact on the family's wellbeing and quality of life. An integrative review was conducted to identify and analyse the existing scales that evaluate the process of living with chronic illness or related factors of daily living from the family perspective. A search was developed in Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Cuiden and Scielo databases until May 2019. From 5,344 identified articles, 13 studies were eligible for inclusion. 16 scales were identified and assessed constructs related to the concept of living with chronic illness, including quality of life; perceptions and needs; life satisfaction and well-being; impact; and psychological adjustment to the disease. However, these scales do not measure the family process of living with chronic illness from a comprehensive perspective. This review highlights the need to develop and validate a scale that evaluates the multidimensional nature of living with chronic illness from the family perspective.
Keywords: family caregivers; instrument; literature review; living with chronic illness; nursing.