Caregiving Activities and Activity-Limiting Pain Among African American Caregivers.

Abstract

Background: African American caregivers disproportionately engage in high-intensity caregiving. Pain experiences of African Americans may interfere with caregiving and overall health, but little is known about the associations of caregiving activities and activity-limiting pain among African Americans.

Objective: We aimed to 1) examine risk factors for activity-limiting pain among African American caregivers and 2) analyze the relationships between caregiving intensity, patient care needs and activity-limiting pain.

Methods: In a cross-sectional analysis, using nationally representative data from the National Study of Caregiving and linked National Health and Aging Trends Study, we analyzed caregiver and care recipient factors associated with activity-limiting pain among African American caregivers. We examined the relationship between caregiving intensity, patient care needs and activity-limiting pain using multivariable logistic regression. Sampling weights were applied to make nationally representative estimates.

Results: Our sample (N = 1673) included mostly female (63.5%) African American caregivers, with a mean age of 55.8 ± 21.5 years. Nearly half experience pain and 11% report activity-limiting pain. In our fully adjusted, multivariable model, those with higher intensity caregiving (i.e., longer duration of caregiving) [aOR: 2.09, CI: 1.29-3.39] and higher patient care needs (i.e., supporting care recipients requiring assistance for more activities of daily living (ADLs)) [aOR: 1.15, CI: 1.02-1.29] had higher odds of activity-limiting pain compared to those with lower intensity caregiving and lower care needs.

Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of the intersection of race, caregiving, and pain. Future work should explore how African American caregivers cope with pain and how best to support them.