Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effect of family nursing on patients with Alzheimer’s disease （AD） in China. Methods Databases, such as Cochrane Library, EMbase, Pubmed, Web of Science, VIP, Wanfang,CNKI, CBM, were searched for the randomized controlled trials （RCTs） that assessed the effectiveness of family nursing for the elderly with AD from inception to May 2018. Literatures were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and corresponding references were searched manually by two investigators independently. The quality of the included studies was evaluated according to the quality evaluation criteria of Cochrane Handbook 5.1.0. The Meta-analysis of mental status, health status, depression and the activities of daily living was performed by using Revman 5.3 software. Results Thirteen RCTs involving 919 AD patients, including 459 patients in the intervention group and 460 patients in the control group, were included. The quality of the included studies was Grade B. Meta-analysis indicated that the mental status （MD=2.53, 95% CI：1.75 - 3.32）, P<0.01）, depression status （SMD=-1.05. 95%CI：-1.76--0.34）, P<0.01）, health status （MD = 143.73, 95% CI： 107.45 - 180.00, P <0.01）, ability of daily life （SMD = 0.53, 95% CI：0.24 - 0.83, P<0.01）, and self-care （SMD=0.77, 95%CI： 0.55 - 0.98, P<0.01） in the intervention group were better than those in the control group. Conclusion Family nursing can improve mental status, health status, depression and the activities of daily living in AD patients.

Key words: Family nursing, Alzheimer’s disease, Meta-analysis