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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Does caring for your spouse harm one's health?
— evidence from a United States nationally-representative sample of older adults | | Author(s) | Kristi Rahrig Jenkins, Mohammed U Kabeto, Kenneth M Langa |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 29, part 2, February 2009 |
| Pages | pp 277-293 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Spouses as carers ; Health [elderly] ; Chronic illness ; Quality of life ; Correlation ; Longitudinal surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The relationship between spousal caregiving and declines in functioning and self-related health among older caregivers is investigated. The authors used data from the 2000 and 2002 waves of the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a biennial longitudinal survey of a nationally representative cohort of adults aged 50+. Two outcomes were examined, declines in the functioning and declines in self-rated health. Caregivers were classified into three groups: no caregiving, less than 14 hours of caregiving per week, and 14 or more hours of caregiving per week. To assess declines in functioning, two summary scores were created of limitations in basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADLs). To assess declines in self-rated health, the authors compared responses from 2000 and 2002. In the fully adjusted models, caregiving hours did not have an independent effect on declines in functioning or self-rated health. The relationship between caregiving hours and declines in functioning and self-rated health is probably attributable to socio-demographic characteristics, mainly age. The findings suggest that spousal caregiving does not itself harm functional health or perceived health among older adult caregivers. Understanding the differential effects of these socio-economic characteristics with caregiving hours on health will be useful in promoting the health of older adult caregivers and treating their disorders. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090121007 A |
| Classmark | P6:SN: CC: CI: F:59: 49: 3J: 7T |
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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