Table 1.

Caregivers Versus Noncaregivers: Demographic, Health, Psychosocial, and Cognitive Measures

Variables	Caregivers (n = 122)	Noncaregivers (n = 117)
Demographic/health factors
% Women	62	64
% Caucasian	94	92
Age (years, M ± SD)	71.7 ± 8.9	70.2 ± 7.2
Education (years, M ± SD)	15.2 ± 2.6	15.2 ± 2.6
Income ($, M ± SD)a	52.0 ± 31.0	50.7 ± 26.5
No. of years married (M ± SD)	42.1 ± 15.3	40.5 ± 13.7
% Hormone replacement	36b	36b
% Antihypertensive meds	38	31
% Sleep meds	3	2
% CHD	18	17
% Hypertension	39	33
% Diabetes	8	6
% Stroke	3	3
Psychosocial measures
% Current depression	0	0
% History of depression	6	7
Hamilton depression T1 (M ± SD)	2.43 ± 3.1	1.1 ± 2.8***
Hamilton depression T2 (M ± SD)	2.51 ± 2.8	.85 ± 2.7***
Hamilton depression T3 (M ± SD)	2.62 ± 3.1	.86 ± 1.8***
Sleep problems T1 (M ± SD)	27.4 ± 6.5	24.1 ± 5.1***
Sleep problems T2 (M ± SD)	27.0 ± 6.2	24.1 ± 5.3***
Sleep problems T3 (M ± SD)	26.6 ± 6.3	24.5 ± 5.3***
Health habits (M ± SD)
CAGE alcohol score	0.30 ± 0.74	0.35 ± 0.96
No. of cans/bottles beer/week (sqrt)	0.20 ± 0.51	0.22 ± 0.60
No. of shots liquor/week (sqrt)	0.36 ± 0.91	0.35 ± 0.87
Physiological measures
% Obese	30	16*
Cognitive measures (M ± SD)
DST T1	46.0 ± 10.8	49.3 ± 11.8***
DST T2	45.7 ± 11.6	49.5 ± 11.6***
DST T3	45.0 ± 11.5	49.5 ± 12.0***
Validity variables (M ± SD)
MMSE T1	17.0 ± 6.6	28.3 ± 1.8***
MMSE T2	14.8 ± 8.1	28.2 ± 2.3***
MMSE T3	13.5 ± 8.4	28.5 ± 2.2***
Hours care per day T1	7.0 ± 8.2	1.0 ± 3.6***
Hours care T2	9.0 ± 8.6	1.2 ± 3.6***
Hours care T3	7.0 ± 8.1	1.3 ± 3.6***

Notes: CAGE = cut down, annoyed, guilty, eye-opener; CHD = chronic heart disease; MMSE = Mini-Mental State Examination; DST = digit symbol test; Sqrt = square root.

^aIn 1,000’s.

^bIn women.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.