Maguire, Aideen

Informal care‐giving can be a demanding role which has been shown to impact on physical, psychological and social well‐being. Methodological weaknesses including small sample sizes and subjective measures of mental health have led to inconclusive evidence about the relationship between informal care‐giving and mental ill‐health. This paper reports on a study carried out in a region which investigated the relationship between informal care‐giving and mental ill‐health.

Objectives: To determine if providing informal care to a co-resident with dementia symptoms places an additional risk on the likelihood of poor mental health or mortality compared with co-resident non-caregivers.; Design: A quasi-experimental design of caregiving and non-caregiving co-residents of individuals with dementia symptoms provides a natural comparator for the additive effects of caregiving on top of living with an individual with dementia symptoms.; Methods: Census records, providing information on household structure, intensity o