Van Droogenbroeck Filip, Spruyt Bram, Gérain Pierre, Van den Borre Laura, Smith Pierre, De Pauw Robby, Dury Sarah
Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies, Research Unit TOR, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Data Analytics Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
BMC Public Health. 2025 Jan 2;25(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20957-0.
Due to a globally ageing population, the demand for informal caregivers is increasing. This study investigates the socio-demographic profile of informal caregivers in Belgium and assesses the relationship between informal care (intensity and care recipients) and mental health, considering potential moderators like education, age, and gender.
Using population-based data from the 2013 and 2018 waves of the Belgian Health Interview Survey (N = 14,661), we conducted multivariate (multinomial/ordinal) logistic and linear regression analyses to examine the socio-demographic profile of informal caregivers and their psychological distress, measured through the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12).
The prevalence of informal caregiving increased from 10.0% in 2013 to 13.0% in 2018. Informal caregivers were predominantly female, middle-aged, and often had no paid job. High-intensity caregivers (over 20 h/week) experienced significantly higher psychological distress compared to non-caregivers, whereas lower-intensity caregivers did not. Additionally, while gender, age, and education were significant predictors of who becomes a caregiver, they did not moderate the relationship between caregiving and mental health.
Our findings suggest that the stress of caregiving is more directly related to the nature and intensity of the caregiving tasks themselves rather than the demographic characteristics of the caregivers. Interventions aimed at reducing the adverse effects of caregiving might need to be universally applicable to all caregivers, focusing on reducing the intrinsic burdens of caregiving tasks rather than targeting demographic subgroups.
由于全球人口老龄化，对非正式照料者的需求不断增加。本研究调查了比利时非正式照料者的社会人口学特征，并评估了非正式照料（强度和照料对象）与心理健康之间的关系，同时考虑了教育、年龄和性别等潜在调节因素。
利用2013年和2018年比利时健康访谈调查的基于人群的数据（N = 14,661），我们进行了多变量（多项/有序）逻辑回归和线性回归分析，以研究非正式照料者的社会人口学特征及其心理困扰，心理困扰通过一般健康问卷（GHQ - 12）进行测量。
非正式照料的患病率从2013年的10.0%上升至2018年的13.0%。非正式照料者主要为女性，年龄处于中年，且通常没有带薪工作。与非照料者相比，高强度照料者（每周超过20小时）经历的心理困扰明显更高，而低强度照料者则没有。此外，虽然性别、年龄和教育是成为照料者的重要预测因素，但它们并未调节照料与心理健康之间的关系。
我们的研究结果表明，照料压力与照料任务本身的性质和强度更为直接相关，而非照料者的人口统计学特征。旨在减少照料不利影响的干预措施可能需要普遍适用于所有照料者，重点是减轻照料任务的内在负担，而非针对人口统计学亚组。
