Table 1.

Search strategy and extracted information

Search terms for the abstract, title or keywords:

“informal care*” OR “unpaid care*” OR “family care*” OR “lay care*” OR “elder care*”

AND

time OR task* OR activit*

AND

issue* OR bias* OR valid* OR reliab* OR survey* OR challenge* OR method* OR measure* OR questionnaire* OR instrument*

Criteria for inclusion:

English language

Peer reviewed

Empirical study that reported data on the hours or minutes of care

Applies to informal care where the providers are adults

Addressed measurement issues regarding informal care time

Resources:

Ovid

Econlit

Embase

Medline

Scopus

Web of Science

Forward and backward search of review articles

Information extracted (with reasons) to be presented in Table 3:

Year of publication (how the literature has developed over time)

Country of origin of the data used (cultural and institutional differences surrounding the provision and receipt informal care)

Health condition of the care recipients (care recipients are a heterogeneous group)

Method of time measurement (first consideration of a researcher when capturing informal care information)

Sample size (external validity of the study)

*The full search syntax used for Ovid is available in Online Appendix Table A1, see electronic supplementary material (ESM)