Abstract
BackgroundCaregiver health is a crucial public health concern due to the increasing number of elderly people with disabilities. Elderly caregivers are more likely to have poorer health and be a care recipient than younger caregivers. The Taiwan government offers home-based long-term care (LTC) services to provide formal care and decrease the burden of caregivers. This study examined the effects of home-based LTC services on caregiver health according to caregiver age.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included a simple random sample of care recipients and their caregivers. The care recipients had used LTC services under the Ten-Year Long-Term Care Project (TLTCP) in Taiwan. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires from September 2012 to January 2013. The following variables were assessed for caregivers: health, sex, marital status, education level, relationship with care recipient, quality of relationship with care recipient, job, household monthly income, family income spent on caring for the care recipient (%) and caregiving period. Furthermore, the following factors were assessed for care recipients: age, sex, marital status, education level, living alone, number of family members living with the care recipient, quality of relationship with family and dependency level. The health of the caregivers and care recipients was measured using a self-rated question (self-rated health [SRH] was rated as very poor, poor, fair, good and very good).ResultsThe study revealed that home nursing care was significantly associated with the health of caregivers aged 65 years or older; however, caregivers aged less than 65 who had used home nursing care, rehabilitation or respite care had poorer health than those who had not used these services. In addition, the following variables significantly improved the health of caregivers aged 65 years or older: caregiver employment, 20% or less of family income spent on caregiving than 81%–100% and higher care recipient health. The involvement of daughters-in-law, rather than spouses, and care recipient health were positively related to the health of caregivers aged less than 65 years.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that home-based LTC service use benefits the health of elderly caregivers. By contrast, home-based LTC service use may be negatively correlated with the health of the caregivers aged less than 65 years.
Highlights
Caregiver health is a crucial public health concern due to the increasing number of elderly people with disabilities
Among all the 598 participant pairs, the caregivers aged 65 years or older were, compared with the caregivers aged less than 65 years, more likely to have a lower Self-rated health (SRH) after long-term care (LTC) service use (2.67 vs. 2.86, p = 0.047), be married (96.4% vs. 80.7%, p < 0.001), have a middle school education or less (34.8% vs. 10.6%, p < 0.001), be a spouse (71.0% vs. 11.1%, p < 0.001), be unemployed (92.0% vs. 48.2%, p < 0.001), have an income lower than
The care recipients cared by caregivers aged 65 years or older used more home service than did those cared by caregivers aged less than 65 years (61.7% vs. 46.4%, p = 0.003)
Summary
Caregiver health is a crucial public health concern due to the increasing number of elderly people with disabilities. An increasing number of family members have become informal caregivers and experience a considerable caring burden and stress, because they care for elderly people with disabilities [2,3,4]. Many countries assist caregivers and reduce their burden by establishing long-term care (LTC) systems that provide services at the societal level; this can even improve the caregiver’s health [9, 10]. Two meta-analyses by Pinquart and Sorensen [11, 12] indicated that formal care support did not affect caregiver health In these two studies, formal care was defined as support from professional helpers other than relatives and neighbours, but the supports were not necessarily provided by governments at the societal level. Additional studies are required to evaluate the effects of LTC services on caregiver health
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