The long-term effects of dual caregiving on the caregivers’ well-being among middle-aged and older adults in Taiwan

Abstract

Objectives

As life expectancy is prolonged, older people may face increased burdens related to supporting multi-generational family members. This study is aimed toward examining the effects of such an emerging type of informal care on the well-being of caregivers.

Methods

Participants aged 50 and over from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (1996–2007, n = 4,217) were analyzed. We categorized caregiving status according to different care recipients: 1) older adults only, 2) grandchildren only, 3) both older adults and grandchildren (dual caregiving), and 4) non-caregivers. Well-being was measured based on depressive symptoms and degree of life satisfaction. Generalized Estimation Equation models were used to examine the association between types of caregiving and the caregivers’ state of well-being.

Results

After adjusting for all covariates, caregivers of older adults had significantly more depressive symptoms and less life satisfaction than non-caregivers, especially when caregiving for adults with ADL problems. In contrast, caregivers of grandchildren were not significantly affect either depression or life satisfaction as compared with non-caregivers. Interestingly, caregiving for both older adults and grandchildren had no significant effect on depression but positively affected the degree of life satisfaction.

Conclusion

Our findings highlight that simultaneously taking care of both older adults and grandchildren can buffer negative feelings in caregivers or even improve their mental health.

Keywords:

• Informal caregiver
• wellbeing
• intergenerational caring
• life satisfaction
• depressive symptoms

Acknowledgements

We thank the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan, for providing the dataset of TLSA. However, the interpretation and conclusions contained in this study do not represent those of the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Institutional review board statement

The study was conducted according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and certified for approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee of National Cheng Kung University (IRB No: B-ER-104-087).

Author contributions

Description of authors’ roles: W-C. Hsu initiated the study, conducted data analysis, and completed the manuscript. N-C. Huang and D-C. Li assisted the methodology and provided statistical expertise. S. C. Hu advised the study, provided the resources, and reviewed the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan (grant number: MOHW104-HPA-H-114-114705); and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (grant number: MOST109-2926-I-006-503)