Male Family Caregivers Research Articles

Burden and dimension of social quality of life related to Disaster Preparedness among family Caregivers with chronic kidney disease

Bacground: Caregivers of chronic diseases patients have an important role in emergency and disaster preparedness. However, the lack of understanding of the relation of the caregiver’s burden, dimension of quality of life, and disaster preparedness for personal caregivers with chronic kidney disease. Aim: This study aimed to examine caregivers' burden, dimension of quality of life, and disaster preparedness of personal caregivers with chronic kidney disease. Methods: A Cross-sectional study design was adopted in this study. Accidental sample approach was used from January up to April 2024. The Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF), and the Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool Indonesian Version (DPET-I) were used to assess the study variables. Linear regression was used to examine caregivers' burden, dimension of quality of life and, disaster preparedness of family caregivers of chronic kidney diseases patients. Results: Sixty family caregivers were included in this study with a family caregiver mean aged 51.8 years old. Sixty percent are male family caregivers. There were significant factors such as caregiver burden (β=0.45; p=0.008) and social dimension of the quality of life (β=0.19; p=0.04) for disaster preparedness of family caregivers with chronic kidney disease. Conclusions: The caregiver’s burden and the social dimension of quality of life confirmed the factor associated with disaster preparedness of family caregivers with chronic kidney disease. Burden care and, social dimension of quality-of-life management for caregivers and, including family caregivers for the education of disaster preparedness are recommended to increase disaster preparedness of family caregivers with chronic kidney disease.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN CAREGIVER BURDEN AMONG FAMILY CAREGIVERS OF PERSONS WITH DEMENTIA: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract Family caregiving for individuals with dementia is associated with high levels of burden. Caregiver burden is likely contextual and related to sociocultural norms, including those for gender. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine gender differences in caregiver burden among family caregivers of persons with dementia and to compare such gender differences across cultures. After searching five databases—CINAHL, Medline/PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts, we included relevant articles published in English through December 2022. Two independent reviewers extracted study data and assessed the risk of bias. Forty-three studies were included, and from those, 17 effect sizes were extracted for meta-analysis. We found that family caregivers providing homecare were mainly female and adult children of care recipients. Most studies used the Zarit Burden Interview to measure caregiver burden. Random-effects models revealed moderate effects of gender, with higher burden in female than in male family caregivers (d = 0.41, 95% confidence interval: 0.32 to 0.50, p<.05). However, we found that only 20% of Asian studies reported effects of gender on caregiver burden, while more than half the U.S. (83.33%) and European (56.41%) studies reported gender effects. We conclude that, due to sociocultural norms, female Asian caregivers may more readily accept their caregiving role than females in other regions. Thus, future studies should include measures of cultural expectations related to caregiving. Also, researchers should more extensively explore gender-specific sources of caregiver burden before creating gender-specific caregiver interventions and social policy recommendations for alleviating the burden of female caregivers.

Male Family Caregivers of Schizophrenic Patients have a Higher Risk of Hypertension and Lower Quality of Life : A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: A limited study has identified the essential information on the physical health of family caregivers with patients with schizophrenia in Indonesia. This study aimed to assess the correlations between blood pressure and quality of life in family caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Methods: A retrospective and cross-sectional study design used convenience sampling conducted in several mental hospitals in Indonesia. Measurement of a calibrating sphygmomanometer and WHO Quality of Life-BRIEF were used to collect the data from the family caregiver. Participants received questionnaires and signed informed consent.

Evaluation of Family Caregiver Burden among COVID-19 Patients

Background:Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses from the Coronaviridae family. Not only do the coronaviruses disrupt patients' lives, but they also affect caregivers. This study aimed to assess the burden of family caregivers of COVID-19 patients discharged from a hospital in eastern Iran.Materials and Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 210 family caregivers of COVID-19 inpatients and outpatients. A total of 210 COVID-19 patients referred to 22nd-Bahman Hospital of Khaf from March 2020 to June 2020 were selected via simple randomization. Data were collected using the Zarit caregiver burden scale and a demographics form.Results:The care burden scores were 83.2% and 80.9% in the family caregivers of inpatients and outpatients, respectively, indicating the severity of care burden for COVID-19 patients. The mean scores of objective, subjective, and subjective-objective caregiver burden were significantly higher in male family caregivers and caregivers of inpatients than in female caregivers and caregivers of outpatients [p <0.01].Conclusion:The high objective, subjective, and subjective-objective caregiver burden in family caregivers is an alarm for mental health policy-makers. Therefore, healthcare managers need to consider plans and measures to reduce the care burden of family caregivers of COVID-19 patients.

Male Family Caregivers’ Well-Being: Balancing Work and Care for Parents in Japan

Despite substantial discussions on caregivers in policy making and academic research, a rapidly emerging new group of middle-aged male family caregivers who often also work are largely understudied. Inadequate understanding of male family caregivers jeopardises not only themselves but also care recipients, other family members and society: better care for older people depends on caregivers’ well-being. I address this gap by understanding how and why gender affects male family carers’ choices of care practices, and how male caregivers as ‘gendered beings’ sustain their well-being while reconciling work and care for their parents. Through in-depth-qualitative narrative interviews based on social anthropology of everyday life with 23 male working family carers in Tokyo in 2019, I find that men select care practices with priority given to familiar tasks deemed appropriately masculine. To perform ‘appropriate’ care for their parents, such men tend to approach care as they do their ‘work’: they ‘work-nise’ care. Such a gendered approach to care practices has important implications for addressing gender in public interventions. Also, I find that for male family working carers, achieving well-being does not mean balance in work, care and family. Rather, for them a source of well-being is from fulfilling filial duty as sons, which, however, requires making an appropriate effort and devoting themselves to some extent to support their parent(s). Thus, such men need to be embedded in a care and employment system that enables them to achieve such well being that, in turn, significantly impacts their care provision.

Burden of caring for people with dementia - comparing family caregivers and professional caregivers. A descriptive study.

PurposeCaring for people with dementia is known to be accompanied by burden for the caregiver. This study aims at describing family caregivers’ and professional caregivers’ burden immediately after hospitalization of the person with dementia.Materials and methodsTwenty-five family caregivers and twenty-five professional caregivers of the locked gerontopsychiatric ward of a hospital in Northern Germany completed a questionnaire (BIZA-D-PV), which was evaluated in matched samples. The distribution of frequencies, differences in mean values and correlations were determined. Furthermore, family caregivers were categorized into risk groups.ResultsFamily caregivers perceived a higher burden due to cognitive impairment as well as aggressive and disoriented behavior of the person with dementia compared to professional caregivers. Differences with regard to care tasks were not detected. Female family caregivers rated a higher burden compared to male family caregivers, whereas in the sample of professional caregivers males perceived a higher burden. Correlations between several dimensions of burden and caregivers’ age, severity of dementia as well as physical symptoms were described. Categorizing family caregivers into risk groups showed high risks for depression of the caregiver, violence against the person with dementia and institutionalization of the person with dementia within the next months in 44–72% of cases.ConclusionOur findings emphasize the importance of acquiring knowledge about caregivers’ burden in the course of time in order to develop targeting interventions to decrease caregivers’ burden and to prevent hospital admissions of people with dementia due to a crisis of home caring.

Caring stress, suicidal attitude and suicide care ability among family caregivers of suicidal individuals: a path analysis.

What is known on the subject? Suicide is a global mental health issue. Taking care of suicidal individuals is a substantial challenge. Most studies emphasize the suicidal individual. Few studies have emphasized the family caregivers of suicidal individuals. No study has explored the relationship between family caregivers' caring stress with suicidal attitudes and suicide care ability. What this paper adds to existing knowledge? The main results indicated that the older family caregivers tended to have a more negative attitude towards suicidal individuals. Female family caregivers' stress was higher than that of male family caregivers. A mild level of caring stress would help family caregivers have a more positive attitude towards suicidal individuals. Furthermore, a positive attitude would help family caregivers improve their caring ability. What are the implications for practice? Mental health nurses could help family caregivers, especially female family caregivers, reduce their holistic caring burden by looking for support resources and enhancing their coping strategies. Mental health nurses could help family caregivers promote positive attitudes towards suicidal relatives by understanding suicidal individuals' suffering. Suicide is a global mental health issue. Family caregivers play a key role in preventing suicide attempts. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship among stress due to the family caregiver's role, suicidal attitude of the family caregiver and suicide care ability among family caregivers. Additionally, instruments of caring stress, attitudes towards suicidal relatives and caring abilities used in the study were tested to measure construct validity. A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted with 164 family caregivers of people who are suicidal. The following three questionnaires were used: the Caring Stress Scale, the Suicidal Attitudes Scale and the Suicidal Caring Ability Scale. Structural equation modelling was performed using SPSS AMOS 19.0 to examine the path relationships among variables. Bivariate analyses showed that age was negatively correlated with suicidal attitude. In the final path model, caring stress had a positive effect on suicidal attitudes. Suicidal attitude and suicide care ability were highly positively correlated. Gender had a direct effect on caring stress, which indicated that female family caregivers experienced more stress from their role. Mental health nurses could help family caregivers become aware of the emotional pain that suicidal people experience and then promote their positive attitudes towards their suicidal relatives. Furthermore, family caregivers could increase their ability to care for their suicidal relatives, which could reduce the numbers of suicides.

Caracterización y carga del cuidado en hombres cuidadores familiares de personas con enfermedad crónica en colombia.

Objetivo. Describir y comparar las características y percepción de carga del cuidado de hombres cuidadores familiares de personas con enfermedad crónica en diversas regiones de Colombia.Método. Estudio descriptivo, comparativo, transversal con una muestra por conveniencia de 372 cuidadores familiares hombres de personas con enfermedad crónica de las diferentes regiones geográficas de Colombia. Se emplearon los instrumentos GCPC-UN-C para la caracterización y la encuesta de percepción de Sobrecarga del Cuidador de Zarit para determinar la carga percibida.Resultados: Los cuidadores familiares del estudio residentes en Colombia son en 83% de los casos de la región andina, 7% del Pacífico, 4% de la Orinoquía, 4% del Caribe y 2% de la Amazonía. La edad promedio es de 50 años, en su mayoría esposos, hijos o padres del receptor del cuidado, dedican al menos una cuarta parte del día al cuidado, y la mayoría lleva más de 36 meses como cuidadores. El 22% de ellos percibe sobrecarga intensa con el cuidado.Conclusiones. Tendencias demográficas y laborales dan mayor protagonismo masculino en el cuidado de familiares enfermos. La caracterización de hombres cuidadores familiares de personas con enfermedad crónica en Colombia, incluida su percepción de carga con el cuidado, aporta al conocimiento de esta población como base de construcción de respuestas específicas a sus necesidades.

The Male Face of Caregiving

The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the empirical evidence published since 2007 on men as family caregivers of persons with dementia. Searches were conducted on Academic Search Complete, Ageline, CINAHL, Embase, Medline, PsychINFO, Social Work Abstracts, and Web of Science using database-specific controlled (i.e., MeSH terms) vocabulary related to dementia, men, and caregiving. Studies published in English between 2007 and 2012 that provided evidence of the experiences of male family caregivers of persons with dementia were included in the review. A total of 30 articles were selected for inclusion. Studies were grouped into three major themes for review: men's experiences of caregiving, relational factors, and outcomes of caregiving. The reviewed studies build on and support previous findings related to stress, burden, accessing services, and the importance of relational factors to men's caregiving experiences. However, there is a need for a framework that explains these findings in relation to masculinities. Such a framework would provide the necessary unifying context for a more powerful explanatory account. Furthermore, there appears to be the potential for great benefit in fully linking men's caregiver research to men's health issues as a means to articulate strategies to sustain the health and well-being of men caregivers. This seems especially relevant in light of the closing gender gap in life expectancy, which will ultimately see many men providing direct care to their partners.

Characteristics of Male Family Caregivers in Japan and Their Sense of Care Burden, Capacity to Deal with Stress, and Subjective Sense of Well-Being

This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of Japanese male family caregivers in terms of their sense of care burden, their capacity to deal with stress, and their subjective sense of well-being. A survey consisting of questionnaires and interviews was conducted from March to May 2014 in the subjects’ homes. Subjects were 27 Japanese males (the age range: 54 - 85) who provided home care for their family member. Caregivers who were good at relieving stress or who had a subjective sense of well-being were found to have a low care burden. The types and seriousness of diseases of the care recipients were not related to the caregivers’ sense of burden, capacity to deal with stress, or subjective sense of well-being. Based on the interview results, caregivers were found to have the following characteristics: they were particular about methods of care; they learned how to provide home care by themselves; they used their social intelligence in home care; they always provided home care while keeping the future in mind; and most notably, they considered home care to be their primary occupation. On the whole, male caregivers were found to alleviate the burdens of home care by making use of the nursing-care service systems that enabled them to relieve stress and enjoy their leisure time. Caregivers considered home care to be their occupation and used their past social experiences. The workforce helped them deal with the care recipients’ health conditions or day-to-day changes so that they could overcome the care burden.

Subjective physical and mental health characteristics of male family caregivers

Subjective physical and mental health characteristics of male family caregivers

Family demands, social support and caregiver burden in Taiwanese family caregivers living with mental illness: the role of family caregiver gender

The purpose of this study was to assess gender effects on family demands, social support and caregiver burden as well as to examine contributing factors of caregiver burden in caring for family members with mental illness. Providing continued care and support for people with mental illness is demanding and challenging. Findings of earlier caregiving studies on the role of caregiver gender in response to caregiver burden and caregiving-related factors have been inconsistent. Little research has been undertaken to examine gender effect on family demands, social support and caregiver burden in Taiwanese family caregivers of individuals with mental illness. Cross-sectional, descriptive correlation design. Data from 43 families, including at least one male and female family caregiver in each family, were analysed using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and mixed linear modelling. Demographic data, Perceived Stress Scale, Perceived Social Support and Caregiver Burden Scale-Brief were used to collect data. Female family caregivers perceived less social support and experienced higher degrees of caregiver burden compared with male family caregivers. In contrast, no significant gender effect was associated with family demands. Family caregivers with greater family demands and less social support experienced higher degrees of caregiver burden. The results reinforced those of previously published studies that caregiver burden is highly prevalent among female family caregivers. Caregiver gender appears to be highly valuable for explaining family demands, social support and caregiver burden. Health care professionals should continue to collaborate with family caregivers to assess potential gender effects on available support and design gender-specific interventions to alleviate caregiver burden.

Interactive Use of Genograms and Ecomaps in Family Caregiving Research

This article argues for the concurrent and comparative use of genograms and ecomaps in family caregiving research. A genogram is a graphic portrayal of the composition and structure of one's family and an ecomap is a graphic portrayal of personal and family social relationships. Although development and utilization of genograms and ecomaps is rooted in clinical practice with families, as research tools they provide data that can enhance the researcher's understanding of family member experiences. In qualitative research of the supportive and nonsupportive interactions experienced by male family caregivers, the interactive use of genograms and ecomaps (a) facilitated increased understanding of social networks as a context for caregiving, (b) promoted a relational process between researcher and participant, and (c) uncovered findings such as unrealized potential in the participant's social network that may not be revealed with the use of the genogram or ecomap alone, or the noncomparative use of both.