The person who long-term cares for a disabled family member at home needs someone watching their own health
Grade ABig benefitLifespanFreeLittle timeSome willpower
Caregiver burnout is not fussiness. A U.S. study followed more than 800 older adults for four years. Those who cared for a disabled spouse and also reported mental strain had a death risk about 60% higher than people who were not caregivers. Caregivers who did not feel strained did not show that rise. So what to watch is not caregiving itself, but that long stretch of tension.
- Cost
- No money. Hand off part of the care work, and go get one checkup yourself.
- Benefit
- This was a prospective population cohort, 1993 to 1998, mean follow-up 4.5 years, in four U.S. communities. 392 caregivers and 427 non-caregivers, ages 66 to 96, all living with a spouse. In four years 103 people (12.6%) died. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, existing disease, and subclinical cardiovascular disease, people who both provided care and reported mental or emotional strain had a 63% higher death risk than non-caregiver controls (RR 1.63, 95% CI 1.00–2.65, credible range). Caregivers who did not report strain (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.61–1.90) and people whose spouse was disabled but who did not provide care (RR 1.37, 95% CI 0.73–2.58) showed no rise in adjusted mortality
- Notes
- Contested: the lower bound of the credible range sits exactly on 1.00, so “no difference” is not fully ruled out. The sample is older U.S. adults living with a spouse, caring for a disabled elderly spouse; applying it to caregivers of younger disabled relatives is an extrapolation. What it shows is direction: the strained group has higher risk. Hand off care work that can be handed off; ask the local Disabled Persons’ Federation (残联) and civil affairs about residential and day-care services. Do not stop your own chronic-disease medicines — see Section 16, item 1 (take medicines as prescribed). The beneficiary is you.
Sources · 1
- Schulz R, Beach SR (1999). Caregiving as a risk factor for mortality: the Caregiver Health Effects Study. JAMA, 282(23):2215-2219. doi.org/10.1001/jama.282.23.2215