In the past, researchers have found just the opposite – an increased risk of death as well as poorer mental and physical health among caregivers. Such detrimental health effects have been found among people caring for a disabled spouse or a person with dementia, for example.
“(We want to) emphasize the positive message that caregiving is a healthy thing that we should be doing in our families,” lead study author Dr. David L. Roth, director of the Johns Hopkins University Center on Aging and Health, told Reuters Health.
Dolores Gallagher-Thompson, who directs the Geriatric Education Center at Stanford University School of Medicine in California told Reuters Health the current study’s findings are “surprising… because prior studies did find an association between caregiver stress and mortality.”
Gallagher-Thompson pointed out that the caregivers included in Roth’s study were not heavily stressed, however. They didn’t all have their ill family member living with them full time. Some caregivers may have just visited their charges, the report indicates.
The study also did not distinguish between caregivers of people with dementia and those with other conditions.
“Previous studies that have reported high stress and increased mortality have focused on dementia,” said Gallagher-Thompson.
Roth noted that poorer health among caregivers is “undoubtedly true” in some cases, particularly among those caring for people with dementia. However, “caregiving stress has been over exaggerated,” he said.
Of the 3,503 caregivers included in the study, over 80% said they were experiencing either no mental or emotional strain or only a moderate level of such strain.
Only 578 – or less than one in five – felt their caregiving caused them “high strain.”
About Post Author
