Informal care

Despite the internationally recognised importance of informal care, especially in settings with limited services, few studies focus on the informal care for people with mental health problems in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Making informal care visible is important for understanding the challenges and identifying the needs to be addressed. This ethnographic case study explored the dynamics of informal care for people with chronic psychotic symptoms in a group of San living in poor socioeconomic circumstances in a township near Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Providing care to a disabled parent can be a psychologically strenuous activity with potential negative consequences for the caregiver's mental health. At the same time, experiencing the declining health of a parent – often the very reason for the parent's care needs – can impact the adult child's mental health negatively. Because both events are usually observed simultaneously, disentangling the “caregiver effect” and the “family effect” remains a challenge.

Objective We aimed to investigate the relation between informal caregiving and body mass index (BMI) longitudinally. Study designThe data were drawn from wave 2 (2002) to wave 5 (2014) of the German Ageing Survey. This is a representative sample of the community-dwelling population aged 40 years and above in Germany. Methods Self-rated BMI was used. Individuals were asked whether they provide informal care on a regular basis.

Objectives: To determine the role of flexible goal adjustment in the impact of informal caregiving on depressive symptoms, using a longitudinal approach. Method: Data were gathered from the German Ageing Survey. This is a population-based longitudinal study among community-dwelling individuals aged 40 and above in Germany. Data were derived from the second (2002), third (2008) and fourth (2011) wave, drawing on 10,994 observations. Flexible goal adjustment was assessed using a scale by Brandstädter and Renner.

Objectives : Although a sizable body of research supports negative psychological consequences of caregiving, less is known about potential psychological benefits. This study aimed to examine whether caregiving was associated with enhanced generativity, or feeling like one makes important contributions to others. An additional aim was to examine the buffering potential of perceived generativity on adverse health outcomes associated with caregiving.

Informal care by close family members is the main pillar of most long‐term care systems. However, due to demographic ageing, the need for long‐term care is expected to increase while the informal care potential is expected to decline. From a budgetary perspective, informal care is often viewed as a cost‐saving alternative to subsidised formal care.

Objective To investigate associations of objective caregiver burden, subjective caregiver burden and positive aspects of caregiving with self-reported health indicators in caregiving partners of persons with a severe physical disability (spinal cord injury).

Design Cross-sectional, observational.

Setting Community, Switzerland.

Participants Caregiving partners of persons with spinal cord injury (n=118, response rate 19.7%).

PURPOSE: We analyzed gender differences in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and associated factors between informal male and female caregivers in Spain. It is important because of growing rates of dependent people and dwindling public resources. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 610 informal caregivers (265 male and 345 female) using an ad hoc structured questionnaire.

This paper investigates theoretically how the structure of means-tested public long-term care (LTC) support influences the relationship between LTC insurance and informal care. Three types of public support encountered in various means-tested LTC schemes are examined. First, the level to be considered for means-testing only takes into account the level of wealth of the recipient without considering the cost of LTC or the possible insurance benefits. Second, the public support also considers the LTC needs of the recipient.

Data were used from the 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey to examine the influence of informal care on labor market outcomes for married women of working aged, with emphasis on caregiving intensity. After accounting for potential endogeneity between caregiving and labor force participation (LFP) through simultaneous equations modeling, caregivers who provided more than 15 or 20 hr of caregiving per week were 4.5–7.7% less likely to be LFPs. Intensive caregivers who remained working had significantly lower (4.97–7.20) weekly hours of work.