NIH-AARP: Association of Caregiving with Lifestyle Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

Abstract

Objectives: Adult caregiving has been associated with adverse effects on cardiovascular risk factors and health outcomes, with most research focused on caregivers of individuals with dementia and single risk factors. We sought to explore the association of adult and child caregiving, across a spectrum of intensity, with multiple lifestyle risk factors. Methods: We evaluated the association of caregiving with behavioural and metabolic cardiovascular risk factors, using unconditional logistic regression analyses in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Results: While the overall association of self-reported caregiving with cardiovascular risk factors suggested a mostly positive relationship with healthy lifestyle traits (other than sleep duration), our findings also revealed that higher duration caregiving of adults (≥7 hours per week) was associated with an increased frequency of unhealthy behaviours, including diet, and smoking. Discussion: Our findings suggest that the association of caregiving and behavioural cardiovascular risk factors differ by type and intensity of caregiving.