Analyzing the situation of older family caregivers with a focus on health-related quality of life and pain: a cross-sectional cohort study

Abstract

Background: For a significant proportion of the older population, increasing age is associated with health problems and worsening health. Older family caregivers are largely responsible for care of next-of-kin living at home, which impacts their own physical and mental health both positively and negatively. However, evidence is insufficient regarding the health situation of older caregivers. The aim of this study was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and pain, and their associations, among caregivers aged ≥60 years. Methods: The participants (n = 3444) were recruited from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care-Blekinge and Good Aging in Skåne during 2001-2004. Participants aged ≥60 years were selected randomly and underwent cognitive tests, with demographic information obtained through questionnaires. The response rate was 60%. A predefined research protocol was used. HRQoL was measured with the Short-Form Health Survey, dimension mental health. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the associations between HRQoL and pain as well as control factors. Results: Family caregiving was reported by 395 (11.5%) of the participants, and 56.7% of the caregivers reported pain. Family caregivers reported lower pain intensity on the Visual Analogue Scale and were younger, on median, than noncaregivers. Irrespective of caregiver status, pain was associated with mental HRQoL. Concerns about personal health and financial status had the strongest associations with mental HRQOL in both groups, but the levels were higher among caregivers. Conclusion: Pain was one factor associated with low HRQoL regardless of family caregiver status and remained important when controlling for factors related to advanced age. This finding remained among family caregivers, though they reported lower pain intensity. Factors other than pain were shown to be important to mental HRQoL and should also be taken into consideration when discussing actions for family caregivers to maintain and improve health and HRQoL. Trial registration number: Not applicable.

Psychological effects of the pandemic on caregivers of older adults: A rapid systematic review

“…Research, Society and Development, v. 10, n. 8, e13210817125, 2021 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i8.17125 evidenced (Altieri & Santangelo, 2021). Anxiety symptoms could be related to the mandatory isolation due to COVID-19, as people start to feel lonely, bored, or lacking activities (Hwang et al, 2020;Sallim et al, 2015), also, it can be aggravated due to caregiving responsibilities (Fagerström et al, 2020).…”

Nursing Intervention to Improve the Caregivers’ Practices toward Elderly Care at Geriatric Homes

“…this finding is in agreement with that ofMoholt et al 13 who studied the factors affecting the use of home-based services and out of-home respite care services: A survey of family caregivers for older persons withdementia in Northern Norway whoreportedthat the more than three fifth of elderly caregivers were females . As well,Fagerström et al 14 who found in their study about the analyzing the situation of older family caregivers with a focus on health-related quality of life and pain: cross-sectional cohorts study in Sweden that, the great majority of their studied sample married This trend was opposite to what was found in a study in China byShi et al 12 whofound that, more than half of the studied sample were married men, in this regards James et al 3 revealed in their study about socio-demographic, health and functional status correlates of caregiver burden among care recipients age 60 Years and older in Jamaica that, more than half of the studied sample were single female. In Egypt, caregiving is a female occupation, and this give a reason why the majority of the study sample were more females than males.…”

Relationship of Perceived Social Support with Mental Health in Older Caregivers

“…The care of dependent people is associated with negative physical and mental health consequences for family caregivers [9][10][11]. The emotional and psychological consequences of caregiving are primarily represented by subjective burden [12], anxiety, depressive symptoms [13][14][15], higher levels of stress [16], lower levels of subjective well-being and self-efficacy [17], and low self-perceived quality of life [18,19]. Prevalence studies have shown that 40.2% of elderly relative caregivers present depressive symptoms [14].…”