Table 2.
Characteristics and Results of Reviewed Studies
| Authors | Country /region of interest |
Care recipient | Definition of informal care | Sample characteristics of caregivers | Health measure | Methods | Lechner (2009) matching procedure used | Results (if applicable subgroup for which effect is found) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brenna and Di Novi (2016) | Europe | Parent | Providing assistance to a parent, step-parent, or parent-in-law at least on a weekly basis Distinction: Intensive informal care (excludes caregivers helping with domestic chores) |
Women aged 50–75 | Depression (Euro-D) | PSM | Yes | ↑ Euro-D (Southern Europeans) larger effect when providing intensive informal care |
| Coe and Van Houtven (2009) | US | Parent | Spent at least 100 hr since previous wave/in the last 2 years on helping parents/mother/ father with basic personal activities like dressing, eating, and bathing |
Men and women aged 50–64, with only a mother alive | Mental health (CES-D 8); physical health (self-assessed health (SAH), diagnosed heart condition and blood pressure) | Simultaneous equation models (2SLS, Arellano-Bond) | N/A |
Continued caregiving:
↑ CES-D 8 (married males and females) ↑ Heart condition (single males) ↓ SAH (married females) ↑ SAH (married males) Effects after 2 years: ↑ CES-D 8 (married females) ↑ Heart condition (single males) Initial caregiving: ↑ CES-D 8 (married females) |
| Di Novi, Jacobs, and Migheli (2015) | Europe | Parent | Women providing care to elderly parents living in or outside the household in the past 12 months almost weekly or almost daily | Women, aged 50–65 having a parent with bad or very bad health | Self-assessed health; quality of life (CASP-12) | PSM | Yes | ↑ SAH (North and Continental European caregivers) ↓ CASP-12 (Continental European caregivers) ↑ self-realized and pleasure in life (caregivers in Continental and Mediterranean Europe) ↓ able to control life and autonomous (caregivers from Continental Europe) |
| Do, Norton, Stearns, and Van Houtven (2015) | South Korea | Parent (in-law) | Any informal care provided to parents-in-law | Women with living parent (in-law) aged 45+ | Pain affecting daily activities; fair or poor self-rated health; any outpatient care use; OOP spending for outpatient care; any prescription drug use; OOP spending prescription drugs |
Simultaneous equation models (2SLS, IV-probit) |
N/A | ↑ Pain affecting daily activities, health self-rated as poor, OOP outpatient care (daughters and daughters-in-law) ↑ Any outpatient care use, any prescription drug use (daughters) |
| Fukahori, Sakai, and Sato (2015) | Japan | Family member living in the same household | A family member in the same household who is in need of care | Males and their spouses aged 50–64 | Employment rate, working hours, self-reported health, satisfaction with leisure time and life | PSM | No | ↓ Likelihood of participating in work No impact on SAH or life satisfaction (results not presented in article, mentioned in text) |
| Goren, Montgomery, Kahle-Wrobleski, Nakamura, and Ueda (2016) | Japan | Adult relatives with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia | Persons currently caring for an adult relative, with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia | Men and women aged 18+ | Comorbidities; depression (PHQ-9); work productivity (WPAI); SF-36 PCS and MCS; health care resource utilization | PSM | No | ↑ PHQ-9, MDD ↓ SF-36 PCS, MCS and health utilities ↑ Depression, insomnia, anxiety, and pain ↑ Absenteeism, overall work impairment, and activity impairment ↑ Emergency room and traditional provider visits in the past 6 months |
| Heger (2017) | Europe | Parent | Any caregiving activities to parent (help with personal care and practical household help provided outside or inside the household) Distinction: daily, weekly and any frequency of caregiving |
Men and women aged 50–70 | Depression (EURO-D); indicator whether someone suffers from ≥4 depressive symptoms | Simultaneous equation models | N/A | ↑ Euro-D, 4+ depressive symptoms (females) larger effect when more intensive informal care |
| Hernandez and Bigatti (2010) | US | Individual with Alzheimer’s disease or a physical disability | Caring for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease or a physical disability within the past year | Hispanic Americans aged 65+ | Depression (CES-D 20) | Direct matching | No | ↑ CES-D 20 |
| Hong, Han, Reistetter, and Simpson (2016) | South Korea | Spouse with dementia | Persons living with a spouse with dementia | Men and women aged 19+ | Physician-diagnosed stroke | PSM | No | ↑ Odds of stroke |
| Kenny, King, and Hall (2014) | Australia | Spouse, adult relative, elderly parent (in law) | Any time spent caring for a disabled spouse, adult relative or elderly parent/parent-in-law in a typical week Distinction: Care burden: Low (less than 5 hr/w), moderate (5–19 hr/w) and high (20 or more hr/w) |
16+ males and females | SF-36 PCS and MCS | PSM | Yes |
After 2 years:
↑ PCS (high care) Effects for subgroups: ↓ PCS (high caregiving females with a job) ↓ MCS (high caregiving females with a job) ↑ MCS (high caregiving males without job) After 4 years: ↓ PCS (low and moderate care) ↓ MCS (moderate and high care) |
| Rosso and colleagues (2015) | US | Family member or friend | Currently helping ≥1 sick, limited, or frail family member, or friend on a regular basis? Distinction: Low frequency ≤2 times per week; high frequency ≥3 times per week |
Women, 65–80 years old | Walking speed, grip strength, chair stands | PSM | No |
After 6 years:
↑ grip strength (low-frequency caregivers) |
| Schmitz and Westphal (2015) | Germany | Unknown | Providing ≥2 hr per day on care and support for persons in need of care on a typical weekday | Women aged 18+ | SF-12v2 MCS and PCS | PSM | Yes |
Short term:
↓ MCS Longer term: No effects |
| Stroka (2014) | Germany | Anyone in need | Self-reported informal caregiving to sickness fund to receive allowance Distinction: Level of care needed |
Males and females aged 35+ | Drug intake | PSM + D-in-D | Yes | ↑ Intake of antidepressants, tranquilizers, analgesics and gastrointestinal agents Larger effect when more intensive care |
| Trivedi and colleagues (2014) | US | Family member or friend | Any care provision in the past month to a friend or family member who has a health problem, long-term illness, or disability | Noninstitutionalized U.S. civilian population aged ≥18 years | Self-assessed mental health; general health; perceived social and emotional support; sleep hygiene | PSM | No | ↑ Report >15 days of poor mental health and inadequate emotional support; ↓ Report fair or poor health (females) ↑ Report fair or poor health (males) ↓ Receive recommended amount of sleep ↑ Fall asleep unintentionally during the day |
| de Zwart and colleagues (2017) | Europe | Partner | Daily or almost daily caregiving activities (help with personal care) to partner for ≥3 months in the past 12 months | Males and females aged 50+ | Prescription drugs usage; the number of doctor visits in the past 12 months; EURO-D depression scale; self-perceived health | PSM | Yes |
Short term:
↑ Euro-D, ↓ self-reported health; ↑ prescription drug use(females), ↑ doctor visits (females) Longer- term: No effect |
Note: PSM = propensity score matching; 2SLS = two-stage least square; D-in-D = difference-in-difference; IV = instrumental variable; MCS and PCS = Mental Component Scale and Physical Component Scale.