Health Effects of Caring for and About Parents and Spouses

Abstract

Informal caregiving is a potentially attractive alternative to formal care but may entail health costs for the caregiver. We examine the mental and physical health impact of providing informal care and disentangle the caregiving effect-the effect of caring for someone in need-from the family effect-the effect of caring about someone in need. We account for the main sources of endogeneity in the caregiving decision using Arellano-Bond difference GMM models. We use four waves (2010-2013) of panel data from the Dutch Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (STREAM). We find that caregiving harms the mental health of caregivers; the effect is more prominent for spousal caregivers. On top of this, a negative health shock of a family member also has a direct negative effect on mental health, providing evidence of a family effect. Our findings thus highlight that the total effect of having a sick relative may be underestimated when the family effect is not adequately accounted for. As the caregiving effect differs substantially between various types of caregivers, policies to cushion these effects should specifically target those subgroups of caregivers that carry the largest burden of informal caregiving.

Spillover Effects of Mental Health Disorders on Family Members’ Health-Related Quality of Life: Evidence from a US Sample

“…Considering that the evidence of spillover effects on physical health is relatively rare in the literature compared to the effects on mental health, this finding warrants further research to understand a potential role of mental health deterioration as a mediator for the decline of physical health functioning among caregiving and noncaregiving family members. [42][43][44] Using the 3 different models, we attempted to characterize heterogeneity of the spillover effects according to the age of patients (child/adult) and time of disease occurrence (existing/new). For example, the study conducted by Lavelle et al 45 investigated the variation of spillover effects depending on familial relationship with a patient (e.g., parents, spouse, and child), suggesting that a child patient would induce a greater degree of spillover effects.…”

“…Considering that the evidence of spillover effects on physical health is relatively rare in the literature compared to the effects on mental health, this finding warrants further research to understand a potential role of mental health deterioration as a mediator for the decline of physical health functioning among caregiving and noncaregiving family members. 42–44…”

Health of Elderly Parents, Their Children's Labor Supply, and the Role of Migrant Care Workers

“…Further, the provision of informal care is known to be psychologically and physiologically challenging (Bom et al, 2019). We examine health outcomes of daughters and sons after a parental stroke.…”

“…We are interested in the consequences of deteriorating parental health for the labor market outcomes and well-being of adult children. Providing informal care is not only time-consuming, but can also be psychologically and physiologically challenging (Bom et al, 2019). Thus, parents' health may affect their children's allocation of time Schone, 1997, 1999) and their own health.…”

The Impact of Micro and Macro Level Factors on the Working and Living Conditions of Migrant Care Workers in Italy and Israel—A Scoping Review

“…Nevertheless, the support they provide involves substantial time costs and can negatively affect their mental and physical health and well-being [ 5 , 6 ]. Studies have shown that informal caregivers have higher rates of depression, lower levels of well-being, and experience more cardiovascular problems than those not providing informal care [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. These negative effects can result from the stress caused by trying to meet the competing demands of their family and paid work, social exclusion, and the physically demanding nature of providing care [ 10 ].…”