Table 5.
Overall informal caregivers’ perceived health status and worsening predictors by country.
| Predictors | Worsened Overall Health Status OR (95%CI) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany (n = 145) | Italy (n = 172) | |||||
| Improved/Not Changed Health (n = 60) | Worsened Health (n = 85) | p | Improved/Not Changed Health (n = 93) |
Worsened Health (n = 79) | p | |
| Caregivers | ||||||
| Age | 53.2 ± 13.1 | 57.0 ± 9.5 | 0.050 | 55.2 ± 12.1 | 54.8 ± 12.0 | 0.814 |
| Gender (Female) | 53 (88.3%) | 76 (89.4%) | 0.838 | 69 (75.0%) | 65 (82.3%) | 0.249 |
| Educational level | 0.528 | 0.824 | ||||
| Primary education | 2 (3.3%) | 4 (4.7%) | 1 (1.1%) | 2 (2.5%) | ||
| Lower secondary education | 14 (23.3%) | 25 (29.4%) | 6 (6.5%) | 6 (7.6%) | ||
| Upper secondary education | 14 (23.3%) | 24 (28.2%) | 40 (43.0%) | 36 (45.6%) | ||
| Tertiary education | 30 (50.0%) | 32 (37.6%) | 46 (49.5%) | 35 (44.3) | ||
| Caregiving (Difference post–pre in hours of care) | 8.8 ± 20.9 | 13.9 ± 17.1 | 0.118 | 4.4 ± 31.4 | 10.7 ± 25.1 | 0.157 |
| Service provision (Continuity) | 41 (69.5%) | 52 (61.9%) | 0.349 | 66 (71.7%) | 58 (74.4%) | 0.702 |
| Formal social and health care services provision (Discontinuity) | 46 (78.0%) | 71 (83.5%) | 0.400 | 72 (79.1%) | 71 (91.0%) | 0.032 |
| Formal support effectiveness (at least 1 very/extremely) |
46 (76.7%) | 58 (68.2%) | 0.267 | 55 (59.1%) | 51 (64.6%) | 0.467 |
| Informal support effectiveness (at least 1 very/extremely) | 42 (70.0%) | 42 (49.4%) | 0.013 | 58 (62.4%) | 44 (56.4%) | 0.429 |
| Living condition | 0.077 | 0.072 | ||||
| Co-habiting | 25 (41.7%) | 53 (62.4%) | 45 (48.4%) | 50 (64.1%) | ||
| Walking distance | 6 (10.0%) | 8 (9.4%) | 20 (21.5%) | 9 (11.5%) | ||
| Within 1 h travel | 23 (38.3%) | 20 (23.5%) | 25 (26.9%) | 19 (24.4%) | ||
| More than 1 h travel | 6 (10.0%) | 4 (4.7%) | 3 (3.2%) | 0 (0.0%) | ||
| Caregiver Infection (“I have personally been infected”) | 3 (5.8%) | 9 (11.4%) | 0.275 | 7 (8.6%) | 14 (18.7%) | 0.067 |
| Older care recipient | ||||||
| Psychological/mental health issues (e.g., depression, anxiety, etc.) | 29 (52.7%) | 64 (79.0%) | 0.001 | 45 (52.9%) | 52 (70.3%) | 0.025 |
| Neurological disability or learning difficulty (other than dementia and memory problems) | 14 (25.0%) | 31 (38.8%) | 0.094 | 21 (25.6%) | 31 (42.5%) | 0.027 |
“Bold” higlight the statistically significant differences.