Gender differences in primary home caregivers of older relatives in a Mediterranean environment: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was developed in Spain to analyse gender differences in intensity of care, care recipient needs and subjective burden, as well as the moderating effects of kinship on the relationship between gender and subjective burden. A probabilistic sample of 200 primary caregivers (100 male and 100 female) of older relatives was interviewed by expert nurses. Socio-demographic data and several scales regarding objective and subjective burden were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, ANOVA and multiple linear regression were used to analyse the data. There were gender differences in subjective burden, with female caregivers having more subjective burden than male caregivers, but not in objective burden (intensity of care and care recipients’ needs). Kinship moderated the relationship between gender and subjective burden, as gender differences were found in spouses (wives had more subjective burden than husbands) but not in offspring.