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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Caring-related inequalities in psychological distress in Britain during the 1990s | | Author(s) | Michael Hirst |
| Journal title | Journal of Public Health Medicine, vol 25, no 4, December 2003 |
| Pages | pp 336-343 |
| Source | www.pubmed.oupjournals.org |
| Keywords | Informal care ; Ill health ; Stress ; Anxiety ; Longitudinal surveys. |
| Annotation | Heavy involvement in caregiving is often associated with symptoms of anxiety and distress, and the intensification of care may increase rates of distress in carers relative to that in non-carers. The patterns of caregiving given in the General Household Survey (GHS) for 1985, 1990 and 1995 confirm increasing amounts of time devoted to more demanding types of care. The present study uses secondary analysis of data from the first ten waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) covering 1991-2000, based on some 9,000 adults interviewed personally in successive waves. Symptoms of psychological distress were assessed using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Carers were found to present higher rates of distress than non-carers, and the health gap widens as the definition of caregiving focuses on those living with the person they care for, and those devoting 20 hours or more per week to their caring activities. Differences in distress rates between carers and non-carers are greater for women than for men. However, there is no support for the hypothesis that inequalities in distress associated with caregiving have increased over time. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040311502 A |
| Classmark | P6: CH: QNH: ENP: 3J |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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