Reverberations of Family Illness: A Longitudinal Assessment of Informal Caregiving and Mental Health Status in the Nurses Health Study
Carolyn C. Cannuscio, ScD,
Camara Jones, MD, DrPH,
Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD,
Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH,
Lisa Berkman, PhD and
Eric Rimm, ScD
Carolyn C. Cannuscio, Camara Jones, Ichiro Kawachi, and Lisa Berkman are with the Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. Carolyn C. Cannuscio is also with the Epidemiology Department, Merck Research Laboratories, Blue Bell, Pa. Camara Jones, Graham A. Colditz, and Eric Rimm are with the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. Camara Jones is also with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. Graham A. Colditz and Eric Rimm are also with Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. Eric Rimm is also with the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Eric Rimm, ScD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: eric.rimm{at}channing.harvard.edu).
0bjectives. This study examined the association between caregivingfor disabled or ill family members, estimated to occur in morethan 22 million US households, and change in mental health.
Methods. We assessed 4-year change in mental health among 37742 Nurses Health Study participants with the MedicalOutcomes Study Short-Form 36.
Results. Women who provided 36 or more weekly hours of careto a disabled spouse were almost 6 times more likely than noncaregiversto experience depressive or anxious symptoms (multivariate oddsratio [OR] = 5.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.8, 8.3).Caring for a disabled or ill parent ( 36 weekly hours) was associatedwith a less dramatic elevation in depressive or anxious symptoms(multivariate OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 0.9, 4.3).
Conclusions. In this population, caregiving was associated withincreased risk of depressive or anxious symptoms.
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