University of Wisconsin - Extension

MADISON, Wis.-- As Wisconsin's population continues to age, more families will be called upon to provide care to their family members. Family members are the major source of support for people who are unable to care for themselves, says Mary Brintnall-Peterson, University of Wisconsin-Extension program specialist in aging. Approximately 25 million family caregivers provide 80 percent of home care to aging parents or spouses.

"Many caregivers find themselves lacking caregiving knowledge and skills," Brintnall-Peterson says. "Often they are emotionally drained, and feel out of control or unaware of where to turn for assistance and help. These caregivers are under a lot of stress and often neglect their own health and well-being."

There are more than five million caregivers of persons with dementia in the United States, according to the AARP, and until now, no study had been done on the physical health correlates of caring for a family member with dementia.

Researchers at the University of Washington analyzed 23 studies of self-reported health and physiological functioning in caregivers of persons with dementia. They found that caregivers had higher stress hormones, lower resistance to some viruses and reported poorer health than noncaregivers. The findings were reported in the American Psychological Association's November APA Psychological Bulletin.

The studies involved 3,072 participants - ages 55 to 75 years - over a 38-year period and compared the physical health of caregivers matched demographically with noncaregivers on 11 health categories. The categories were: self-reported health, chronic illnesses, physical symptoms, medication use, health service use, functional cellular immunity, antibodies, enumerative immunity, stress hormones, cardiovascular function and metabolic function. Researchers found that caregivers had a 23 percent higher level of stress hormones and a 15 percent lower level of antibody responses than noncaregivers.

Caregivers' elevated stress hormones can lead to problems over time such as elevated blood pressure and glucose levels, which can increase their risk for hypertension and diabetes. Furthermore, according to the report, older caregivers may have poorer antibody production, which may also increase their risk for flu even if they receive shots.

Female caregivers reported more health problems but did not exhibit higher hormone, cardiovascular or metabolic disease risk than male caregivers, according to the study. Women may report more health problems than men because they are more aware of their problems and more likely to report them when they exist. Reported health is also strongly related to psychological distress, which is higher in women than men, and likewise reported more by female caregivers than male caregivers.

Older caregivers reported more health problems than younger caregivers but did not differ with the younger caregivers in physiological risk. According to the report, as age increases, reports of physical illness and disabilities also increase and they are related to general distress and the distress of caring for an ill spouse or family member.

The report emphasizes that we cannot infer from this meta-analysis that caregiving is hazardous to one's health, but the findings do have clinical implications for millions of caregivers. As the report concluded, "As the population ages, caregivers will play an even greater role in society and interventions that help caregivers maintain their health will not only benefit the care recipients but society as well."