Abstract
BackgroundThe economic and moral implications of family burden are well recognised. What is less understood is whether or how family health and family burden relate to personal mental health. This study examines family health and perceived family burden as predictors of personal mental health, taking personal and sociodemographic factors into consideration.MethodsData used was from the National Comorbidity Study Replication (NCS-R), namely the random 30% of participants (N = 3192) to whom the family burden interview was administered. Measures of family burden and mental health were considered for analysis.ResultsBinary logistic regressions were used as means of analyses. Perception of family burden was associated with an increased vulnerability to personal mental health problems, as was the presence of mental health difficulties within the family health profile. Which member of the family (kinship) was ill bore no relation to prediction of personal mental health. Personal and socio-demographic factors of sex, age, marital status, education and household income were all predictive of increased vulnerability to mental health problems over the last 12 months.ConclusionsCertain elements of family health profile and its perceived burden on the individuals themselves appears related to risk of personal incidence of mental health problems within the individuals themselves. For moral and economic reasons, further research to understand the dynamics of these relationships is essential to aid developing initiatives to protect and support the mental health and wellbeing of relatives of ill individuals.
Highlights
The economic and moral implications of family burden are well recognised
A full report of the methods employed within the National Comorbidity Study Replication (NCS-R) can be found in Kessler et al [26]: The NCS-R undertaken by the World Mental Health team as “a nationally representative community household survey of the prevalence and correlates of mental disorders in the US” [26]
As family burden was a main variable of interest, initial statistics are reported based on all those to whom the family burden interview was administered (N = 3192)
Summary
The economic and moral implications of family burden are well recognised. What is less understood is whether or how family health and family burden relate to personal mental health. A great moral and economic importance must be attached to understanding the health of the public, and biopsychosocial factors which may relate to it Such information is essential to informing health policies in their objective of putting practices and interventions in place to improve wellbeing within the community. The primary responsibility for the provision of long term care and support for vulnerable individuals such as the ill and elderly often falls with the family [5]. This is due to the fact that alongside increasing needs for care, governmental trends have moved towards reduced availability of professional resources as a result of financial restrictions, and an increasing reliance on solutions within the community [5]
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