TY - JOUR
T1 - Employment status, social ties, and caregivers' mental health
AU - Cannuscio, Carolyn C.
AU - Colditz, Graham A.
AU - Rimm, Eric B.
AU - Berkman, Lisa F.
AU - Jones, Camara P.
AU - Kawachi, Ichiro
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the Nurses’ Health Study participants and staff for their commitment to advancing women's health research. In addition to NHS grant CA 40356, the primary source of support for this study, the Nurses’ Health Study is supported for other specific projects by the following NIH grants: CA46475, AG12806, CA55075, CA67883, AG13842, CA65725, CA70817, DK46519, EY09611, DK45362, HL03535, HL34594, ES05947, CA75016, CA62252, CA66385, ES05947, CA62005, DK52866, CA08283, HL57871, AG15424, AR02074, CA80620. This work was conducted while C.C. Cannuscio was a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health. Merck & Co., Inc. did not fund the research and will not benefit directly from the results reported.
PY - 2004/4
Y1 - 2004/4
N2 - The purpose of this study of mid-life and older women was to assess the relation between informal care provision and depressive symptoms, taking into account concurrent demands on women's time (including multiple caregiving roles and employment outside the home) as well as participants' access to potentially supportive social ties. This cross-sectional study included women ages 46-71, free from major disease, who provided complete health and social information in the 1992 Nurses' Health Study follow-up survey (n=61,383). In logistic regression models predicting depressive symptoms, we examined the interaction between employment outside the home and informal care provision for a disabled or ill spouse or parent. We also investigated level of social ties, measured with the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index, as a potential modifier of the association between informal care provision and depressive symptoms. In all analyses, higher weekly time commitment to informal care for a spouse or parent was associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms. This relationship persisted whether women were not employed outside the home, were employed full-time, or were employed part-time. Higher weekly time commitment to informal care provision was associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms whether women were socially integrated or socially isolated. However, both informal care provision and social ties were potent independent correlates of depressive symptoms. Therefore, women who reported high spousal care time commitment and few social ties experienced a dramatic elevation in depressive symptoms, compared to women with no spousal care responsibilities and many social ties (OR for depressive symptoms=11.8; 95% CI 4.8, 28.9). We observed the same pattern among socially isolated women who cared for their parent(s) many hours per week, but the association was not as strong (OR for depressive symptoms=6.5; 95% CI 3.4, 12.7). In this cross-sectional study, employment status did not seem to confer additional mental health risk or benefit to informal caregivers, while access to extensive social ties was associated with more favorable caregiver health outcomes.
AB - The purpose of this study of mid-life and older women was to assess the relation between informal care provision and depressive symptoms, taking into account concurrent demands on women's time (including multiple caregiving roles and employment outside the home) as well as participants' access to potentially supportive social ties. This cross-sectional study included women ages 46-71, free from major disease, who provided complete health and social information in the 1992 Nurses' Health Study follow-up survey (n=61,383). In logistic regression models predicting depressive symptoms, we examined the interaction between employment outside the home and informal care provision for a disabled or ill spouse or parent. We also investigated level of social ties, measured with the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index, as a potential modifier of the association between informal care provision and depressive symptoms. In all analyses, higher weekly time commitment to informal care for a spouse or parent was associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms. This relationship persisted whether women were not employed outside the home, were employed full-time, or were employed part-time. Higher weekly time commitment to informal care provision was associated with increased risk of depressive symptoms whether women were socially integrated or socially isolated. However, both informal care provision and social ties were potent independent correlates of depressive symptoms. Therefore, women who reported high spousal care time commitment and few social ties experienced a dramatic elevation in depressive symptoms, compared to women with no spousal care responsibilities and many social ties (OR for depressive symptoms=11.8; 95% CI 4.8, 28.9). We observed the same pattern among socially isolated women who cared for their parent(s) many hours per week, but the association was not as strong (OR for depressive symptoms=6.5; 95% CI 3.4, 12.7). In this cross-sectional study, employment status did not seem to confer additional mental health risk or benefit to informal caregivers, while access to extensive social ties was associated with more favorable caregiver health outcomes.
KW - Caregivers
KW - Depressive symptoms
KW - Employment
KW - Mental health
KW - Social ties
KW - USA
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0842283397
U2 - 10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00317-4
DO - 10.1016/S0277-9536(03)00317-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 14759673
AN - SCOPUS:0842283397
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 58
SP - 1247
EP - 1256
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 7
ER -