Price Debora, Di Gessa Giorgio
Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, London, UK.
Aging Ment Health. 2024 Jan-Feb;28(1):103-111. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2023.2236569. Epub 2023 Jul 23.
Older carers play a vital role supporting population health and protecting health and social care systems, yet there has been little research on understanding the effect of the pandemic on this group. In this paper, we investigate caring as a factor contributing to mental and self-rated health.
We investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between provision of family care and mental health and wellbeing using longitudinal data from 5,149 members of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who responded to Wave 9 (2018/2019) and two COVID-19 sub-studies (June/July 2020; November/December 2020). We use logistic or linear regression models depending on outcome measures, controlling for pre-pandemic socioeconomic, demographic, and health-related variables.
Before the pandemic, 21% of respondents cared for family or friends. Older people caring for someone inside the household mostly continued to provide care during the pandemic, with more than a quarter reporting an increase in the amount of care provided. Co-resident carers were disproportionately female, older, in the lowest wealth quintile, and more likely to report disability and chronic conditions. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses suggest that, compared to those caring for people living outside the household, co-resident carers were significantly more likely to report poorer mental health and self-rated health.
The health of older carers worsened disproportionately in the first year of the pandemic, a period also characterised by disruptions to support and closure of respite services. Support for carers' mental and physical health requires greater policy attention, especially in pandemic conditions.
老年照料者在支持人口健康以及保护卫生和社会护理系统方面发挥着至关重要的作用，但关于了解疫情对这一群体的影响的研究却很少。在本文中，我们调查照料行为作为影响心理健康和自评健康的一个因素。
我们利用来自英国老年纵向研究的5149名成员的纵向数据进行调查，这些成员对第9波（2018/2019年）以及两项新冠疫情子研究（2020年6月/7月；2020年11月/12月）做出了回应，研究家庭照料的提供与心理健康和幸福之间的横断面和纵向关联。我们根据结果指标使用逻辑回归或线性回归模型，并控制疫情前的社会经济、人口统计学和健康相关变量。
在疫情之前，21%的受访者照料家人或朋友。在家庭中照料他人的老年人在疫情期间大多继续提供照料，超过四分之一的人报告照料量有所增加。共同居住的照料者中女性、老年人、处于最低财富五分位数的比例过高，并且更有可能报告有残疾和慢性病。横断面和纵向分析均表明，与照料不住在一起的人的照料者相比，共同居住的照料者报告心理健康和自评健康较差的可能性显著更高。
在疫情的第一年，老年照料者的健康状况恶化程度格外严重，这一时期的特点还包括支持的中断和临时护理服务的关闭。对照料者身心健康的支持需要得到更大的政策关注，尤其是在疫情期间。
