Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.
Center for Public Mental Health, Gösing am Wagram, Austria.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Oct 16;21(1):1868. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-11955-7.
Stigma and informal caregiving are determinants for health and wellbeing, but few studies have examined stigma towards informal caregiving. Public stigma may be expressed differently towards caregivers depending on their gender and employment status due to societal norms. Therefore, this study analyzes if there is a difference in public stigma shown by the general population toward informal caregivers of care recipients aged 65 years or older based on the observed caregiver's gender or working status.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Germany. Data from 1038 adult participants from the general population in Germany were assessed with an Online-Survey. They were recruited with a quota-system based on the German micro census. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 16 vignettes describing a caregiving situation, which varied in the caregiver's gender and working status, and care recipient's gender and type of impairment. After reading the vignette, they were asked to provide sociodemographic information and complete three questionnaires on public stigma assessing their emotional (Emotional Reactions), behavioral (Social Distance) and cognitive reaction (Statements on informal caregivers) to the caregiver described in the vignette. Regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic data of the participants, were conducted.
Findings indicated an association between reading about male caregivers and increased social distance, compared with reading about female caregivers. Reading about working caregivers was associated with decreased social distance and increased appreciative statements, compared to reading about non-working caregivers. Analyses after stratifying by gender of the caregiver in the vignette indicated an association between reading about female working caregivers and increased appreciative statements, compared to reading about female non-working caregivers. When stratifying by working status, an association was found between reading about male working caregivers and increased social distance, when compared to reading about female working caregivers.
This study's findings indicate that gender and working status of the perceived informal caregivers are of relevance to the public stigma directed towards these caregivers. Male and non-working informal caregivers were shown more public stigma than female and working informal caregivers. Thus, interventions to reduce public stigma, in particular towards male and non-working caregivers, are recommended.
污名化和非正式护理是影响健康和幸福感的决定因素，但很少有研究调查过对非正式护理的污名化。由于社会规范的原因，公众污名可能会因护理人员的性别和就业状况而对护理人员表现出不同的态度。因此，本研究分析了一般人群对 65 岁或以上的护理接受者的非正式护理人员的公众污名是否因观察到的护理人员的性别或工作状况而有所不同。
这是一项在德国进行的横断面研究。使用在线调查评估了来自德国普通人群的 1038 名成年参与者的数据。他们是根据德国微观普查采用配额系统招募的。参与者被随机分配到 16 个描述护理情况的情景描述之一，这些情景描述在护理人员的性别和工作状况以及护理接受者的性别和损伤类型方面有所不同。阅读情景描述后，他们被要求提供社会人口统计学信息，并完成三个评估对情景描述中护理人员的公众污名的问卷，包括情感反应（情感反应）、社会距离（社会距离）和认知反应（对非正式护理人员的陈述）。对参与者的社会人口统计学数据进行调整后，进行回归分析。
研究结果表明，与阅读女性护理人员的情况相比，阅读男性护理人员的情况与社会距离的增加有关。与阅读非工作护理人员的情况相比，阅读工作护理人员的情况与社会距离的减少和赞赏性陈述的增加有关。在按情景描述中护理人员的性别进行分层分析后，与阅读女性非工作护理人员的情况相比，阅读女性工作护理人员的情况与赞赏性陈述的增加有关。当按工作状况进行分层时，与阅读女性工作护理人员的情况相比，阅读男性工作护理人员的情况与社会距离的增加有关。
本研究结果表明，感知到的非正式护理人员的性别和工作状况与针对这些护理人员的公众污名有关。男性和非工作的非正式护理人员比女性和工作的非正式护理人员受到更多的公众污名。因此，建议采取干预措施减少公众污名，特别是针对男性和非工作的护理人员。
