Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö, Lund University, Sweden.
Centre for Ageing and Health, Department of Health and Rehabilitation. University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Scand J Public Health. 2022 Mar;50(2):223-231. doi: 10.1177/1403494820960648. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
Will being a caregiver further impact the health of a group already at risk of adverse health due to old age? This study aimed to answer the questions whether short- and long-term healthcare consumption and mortality differ between informal caregivers and non-caregivers and between high-burden and low-burden informal caregivers.
The study population consisted of 423 caregivers and 3444 controls from the Swedish national general population study 'Good Aging in Skåne'. Caregivers were divided into those reporting high and low caregiver burden and information on caregiver status was collected from questionnaires. Data for mortality and healthcare consumption (inpatient and outpatient visits) were obtained from The National Board of Health and Welfare. Mortality was tested with Cox regression models and healthcare consumption with logistic regression models, adjusted for sociodemographic covariates, Activities of daily living (ADL) and number of chronic diseases.
Caregivers were younger than non-caregivers, had higher educational background, more independent in ADL and more often men. Of 423 caregivers, 73 (17.3%) reported experiencing high caregiver burden. High-burden caregivers were older, more dependent in personal ADL and gave more hours of care than those reporting low burden. In adjusted regression models, we found no differences in either consumption of healthcare nor mortality between caregivers and non-caregivers and high-burden v. low-burden caregivers looking at short-term (1 and 3 years) and long-term (10 and 15 years) follow-up periods.
照顾者本身的健康状况可能就已经因为年老而处于不利状态，那么照顾者的身份是否会进一步影响他们的健康呢？本研究旨在回答以下问题：与非照顾者相比，短期和长期的医疗保健消费和死亡率是否存在差异？与高负担和低负担的非正式照顾者相比，这些差异又是否存在？
研究人群来自瑞典全国一般人群研究“斯科讷的良好老龄化”中的 423 名照顾者和 3444 名对照者。根据报告的照顾者负担高低，将照顾者分为高负担和低负担两组，并通过问卷收集照顾者的相关信息。死亡率和医疗保健消费（住院和门诊就诊）的数据来自国家卫生和福利委员会。使用 Cox 回归模型测试死亡率，使用逻辑回归模型调整社会人口统计学协变量、日常生活活动（ADL）和慢性疾病数量后，测试医疗保健消费。
与非照顾者相比，照顾者更年轻，教育程度更高，ADL 更独立，且更多为男性。在 423 名照顾者中，有 73 名（17.3%）报告称自己照顾负担较重。高负担照顾者年龄更大，个人 ADL 依赖性更强，照顾时间也比低负担照顾者更长。在调整后的回归模型中，我们在短期（1 年和 3 年）和长期（10 年和 15 年）随访期间，都没有发现照顾者和非照顾者之间以及高负担和低负担照顾者之间在医疗保健消费或死亡率方面存在差异。
