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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Gender differences among Canadian spousal caregivers at the end of life | | Author(s) | Kevin Brazil, Lehana Thabane, Gary Foster |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 17, no 2, March 2009 |
| Pages | pp 159-166 |
| Source | http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/hsc |
| Keywords | Spouses as carers ; Terminal care ; Therapeutic services [domiciliary] ; Home nursing ; Cross sectional surveys ; Canada. |
| Annotation | The primary research question for this study was to determine gender differences in caregiver strain among spousal caregivers. Secondary research questions investigated included: the presence of gender differences among spousal caregivers in the duration of care provided; gender differences among spousal caregivers in formal service use and unmet service needs; and whether support to care recipients in activities of daily living (ADLs) varied according to the gender of the spousal caregiver. The study was conducted over a 2-year period (2000-2002) in south-central Ontario, Canada. The study sample included 283 informal spousal caregivers (198 females, 85 males) each of whom were caring for a terminally ill spouse at the time they participated in a cross-sectional telephone survey. The analysis showed that females reported a significantly greater level of caregiving strain than males. When considering source of support in activities of daily living for the care recipient, differential assistance was noted on the basis of caregiver gender. Female caregivers had almost twice the odds of providing support in toileting-related tasks than male caregivers, while male caregivers had approximately twice the odds of providing support in mobility-related tasks. Care recipients who had a female caregiver had lower odds of receiving support from family and friends in tasks associated with personal care. To address gender differences in caregiving, a realistic home-based palliative care approach must take into account the importance of informal caregivers. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090304211 A |
| Classmark | P6:SN: LV: N3: N4: 3KB: 7S |
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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