Negotiating Care Over Time: A Systematic Review of Alzheimer's Disease Caregiving Through a Life Course Approach.

The global ageing of the population has significantly increased the demand for long-term informal care, particularly in the context of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although research on caregiver burden and coping strategies is extensive, limited attention has been paid to the temporal evolution of caregiving roles and their intersections with caregivers' life trajectories. This systematic review, conducted across literature published between 2004 and 2024, examines how the life course perspective has been applied in sociological research on family caregiving for people with AD, aiming to analyse the interplay between caregiving timing, biographical transitions, and socio-institutional contexts. The selected studies reveal that caregiving is not a static or homogeneous role but evolves across the life span, shaped by transitions, linked lives and structural conditions. Adopting a life course perspective enhances the understanding of caregiving as a dynamic and socially embedded process. This approach underscores the need for policies that are temporally sensitive, culturally reflexive and capable of supporting caregivers across different life stages.