Table 1.
Characteristics of community-living older adults receiving help with self-care and indoor mobility from a family/unpaid caregiver, stratified by caregiver strain
| Older Adult characteristic | Full sample (N=3422) |
Low or moderate strain (n=2702) |
High strain (n=720) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Column percentages |
Row percentages | |||
| Age [mean (95% CI)] | 78.7 (78.3, 79.0) | 78.5 (78.3, 78.7) | 79.2 (78.8, 79.6) | p=0.18 |
| Sex | ||||
| Male | 36.6% | 78.8% | 21.2% | p<0.001 |
| Female | 63.4% | 84.2% | 15.8% | |
| Race | ||||
| White | 78.7% | 82.0% | 18.0% | p=0.53 |
| Black or other | 21.3% | 83.2% | 16.8% | |
| Education | ||||
| Less than 12 years | 37.3% | 78.8% | 21.2% | p<0.001 |
| 12 or more years | 62.7% | 84.3% | 15.7% | |
| Medicaid recipient | ||||
| No | 77.9% | 83.0% | 17.0% | p<0.05 |
| Yes | 22.1% | 79.7% | 20.3% | |
| Self-rated health | ||||
| Excellent or good | 43.8% | 86.4% | 13.6% | p<0.001 |
| Fair or poor | 56.2% | 79.0% | 21.0% | |
|
Assistance with Activities of
Daily Living |
||||
| Standby, 1, or 2 ADLs | 65.4% | 87.8% | 12.2% | p<0.001 |
| 3 or 4 ADLs | 19.0% | 77.4% | 22.6% | |
| 5 or 6 ADLs | 15.6% | 64.7% | 35.3% | |
| Dementia Status | ||||
| Without dementia | 70.0% | 86.3% | 13.7% | p<0.001 |
| With dementia | 30.1% | 72.8% | 27.2% | |
| End-of-life status | ||||
| Survived 12 months | 86.8% | 83.2% | 16.8% | p<0.001 |
| Died within 12 months | 13.2% | 76.2% | 23.8% | |
Data drawn from National Long-Term Care Survey / Informal Care Survey data from 1999 (n= 791 dyads) and 2004 (n=1149 dyads), and National Health and Aging Trends Study / National Survey of Caregiving from 2011 (n= 736 dyads) and 2015 (n= 746 dyads). Data was weighted using NLTCS and NHATS weights as described in prior work (30). Statistical significance was assessed using chi-squared tests for categorical variables and t-tests for continuous variables. High caregiving-associated strain was defined on the basis of a cut-point of 5 or greater on a scale of 0–9 based on six elements: emotional strain (0 = none; 1 = some; 2 = a lot), physical strain (0–2), financial strain (0–2), having no time for oneself (0 = false; 1 = true), being overwhelmed (0 or 1), and being exhausted (0 or 1). Dementia status identified through composite measures as specified in prior work (30,31). Older adults identified as nearing the end of life if they died within a year of survey completion as documented in the Medicare Master Beneficiary File. “Standby” assistance refers to data from the NLTCS only and is grouped with 1–2 self-care/ mobility activities so as to make the NLTCS and NHATS comparable, as previously described (30).