Gender

It is widely accepted that cancer is an intersubjective experience that impacts upon the psychological well-being of people with cancer and informal carers, as well as on couple relationships. This qualitative study examined the nature and consequences of cancer on the relationship between informal carers and the person with cancer, from the perspective of Australian cancer carers. Sixty-two carers (42 women and 20 men), across a range of cancer types, stages and relationship dyads took part in semi-structured interviews.

Background: Many studies have assessed the impact of caregivers' work activities on the caregiver. There is growing concern about the ever-increasing problems, both physical and physiological, faced by health care workers who provide care for the ill and incapacitated.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine what, if any, differences exist between male and female caregivers. This study primarily focused on caregivers who were taking care of a family member.

This paper describes a three‐phase study to investigate the experience and management of menstruation for women with learning disabilities. It focuses on the findings of the second phase of the study, which looked at the experiences of carers and health professionals. It describes the difficult issues that can arise when providing assistance around menstruation. The findings are discussed in relation to ideologies and sensitivities that exist around gender, sexuality and menstruation.

This study was designed to examine the impact of caregiver gender and employment status on laypeople's willingness to support the caregiver. A total of 216 undergraduates were randomly assigned to read 1 of 4 vignettes that described an individual caring for his or her physically ill spouse. Caregiver gender (man or woman) and employment status (full-time employment or retirement) were manipulated. Overall, female participants reported that they would provide higher levels of support than did male participants, particularly with regard to emotional support.

This paper assesses some of the implications of one of the major social changes to have taken place in the West during the second half of the twentieth century — that is, the increased employment of women, together with normative changes in gender relations and in women's expectations. These changes have been linked to an increase in individualism, which itself is associated with the transcendence of ‘first modernity’. Thus it is suggested that new approaches to social analysis are required (Beck).

Objectives: In a multi-site population-based study in several middle-income countries, we aimed to investigate relative contributions of care arrangements and characteristics of carers and care recipients to strain among carers of people with dementia. Based on previous research, hypotheses focused on carer sex, care inputs, behavioural and psychological symptoms (BPSD) and socioeconomic status, together with potential buffering effects of informal support and employing paid carers.

We examined the relation of social problem-solving abilities to distress experienced by family members assuming a caregiving role for a loved one who had recently incurred a severe physical disability. Family members completed measures of problem-solving, depression and health, while their loved one participated in an inpatient rehabilitation programme. Correlational analyses indicated that a negative problem orientation was significantly predictive of caregiver distress, regardless of the degree of physical impairment of the care recipient.

Do male and female carers have different approaches to the caring role? Tina Fear presents the results of her two small qualitative studies.

Objective: To identify carer and patient characteristics associated with various aspects of burden of care.

Method: The burden on 196 carers, each caring for one patient with dementia, was rated by means of the Relative Stress Scale (RSS). Patients were assessed with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Disability Assessment for Dementia (DAD) and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI).

To help fulfil their responsibilities towards unpaid carers, service providers need some idea of the carer's situation and how many might require support. This paper argues that estimating the prevalence of unpaid care across service planning and budgeting cycles provides a better indication of the size and composition of the carer population than estimates at a point in time. The article presents prevalence rates of unpaid adult care from the British Household Panel Survey.