Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia.
Centre for Disability Research, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2023 Nov 29;45(4):e668-e676. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdad193.
Informal care can affect the mental health of caregivers. The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated many people into informal care. Little is known about the longitudinal effect of informal care throughout the pandemic. We investigate changes in mental health in relation to changes in informal care between July 2020 and September 2021.
Using data from Understanding Society, we applied fixed-effects modelling to assess mental health variations associated with changes in caregiving among 13 557 participants (50 430 observations). Hours of weekly care were categorized as 0, 1-19, ≥20. Mental health was measured using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) as a continuous score and a binary indicator. Main analyses were stratified by gender.
Compared to when delivering 0 hours care/week, the GHQ-12 scores of women providing care for 1-19 hours/week were 0.46 points higher (95%CI: -0.11, 1.09), while their mental health scores were 0.99 higher (95%: 0.08, 1.90) when caring for ≥20 hours/week. Changes on the binary GHQ-12 measure were only evident for women when providing ≥20 hours of weekly care. These changes were not substantial among men.
Informal care adversely impacted the mental health of women carers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Support programmes for informal carers should focus on alleviating caregiving loads in women.
非正式护理会影响护理人员的心理健康。COVID-19 大流行使许多人成为非正式护理人员。对于整个大流行期间非正式护理的纵向影响知之甚少。我们调查了 2020 年 7 月至 2021 年 9 月期间，与非正式护理变化相关的心理健康变化。
使用来自“理解社会”的数据，我们应用固定效应模型来评估与 13557 名参与者（50430 次观察）的护理变化相关的心理健康变化。每周护理时间分为 0、1-19、≥20 小时。使用一般健康问卷（GHQ-12）作为连续评分和二进制指标来衡量心理健康。主要分析按性别分层。
与每周提供 0 小时护理相比，每周提供 1-19 小时护理的女性的 GHQ-12 评分高 0.46 分（95%CI：-0.11，1.09），而当每周提供≥20 小时护理时，她们的心理健康评分高 0.99 分（95%：0.08，1.90）。仅当女性提供每周≥20 小时的护理时，才会在二进制 GHQ-12 测量中出现变化。这些变化在男性中并不明显。
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，非正式护理对女性护理人员的心理健康产生了不利影响。非正式护理人员支持计划应重点减轻女性的护理负担。
