M. Oedekoven, K. Amin-Kotb, P. Gellert, K. Balke, A. Kuhlmey, S. Schnitzer
{"title":"Associations Between Informal Caregivers’ Burden and Educational Level","authors":"M. Oedekoven, K. Amin-Kotb, P. Gellert, K. Balke, A. Kuhlmey, S. Schnitzer","doi":"10.1024/1662-9647/a000199","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We investigated the association between the education of informal caregivers’ (IC) and their physical and mental burden. We hypothesized that better-educated IC would have more resources available to manage the care situation and as a result show lower perceived burden. We conducted a population survey of 6,087 German residents aged 18+ years, 966 of whom reported to be IC. Results show that IC felt more often mentally than physically burdened. In the multivariate analyses, higher-educated IC did not have lower odds of feeling physically burdened than lower-educated IC, though they did have increased odds of feeling mentally burdened. The higher perceived mental burden of higher-educated IC may be related to fear of loss of self-fulfilment and autonomy. Support services should consider the mental burden of higher-educated IC and tailor their interventions accordingly.","PeriodicalId":45525,"journal":{"name":"GeroPsych-The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry","volume":"32 1","pages":"19–29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2019-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"11","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"GeroPsych-The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1024/1662-9647/a000199","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 11
Abstract
We investigated the association between the education of informal caregivers’ (IC) and their physical and mental burden. We hypothesized that better-educated IC would have more resources available to manage the care situation and as a result show lower perceived burden. We conducted a population survey of 6,087 German residents aged 18+ years, 966 of whom reported to be IC. Results show that IC felt more often mentally than physically burdened. In the multivariate analyses, higher-educated IC did not have lower odds of feeling physically burdened than lower-educated IC, though they did have increased odds of feeling mentally burdened. The higher perceived mental burden of higher-educated IC may be related to fear of loss of self-fulfilment and autonomy. Support services should consider the mental burden of higher-educated IC and tailor their interventions accordingly.