Is the mental health of older adults receiving care from their children related to their children’s dual burden of caregiving and work stress? A linked lives perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. Sample flowchart.

Table 1. Descriptive characteristics of older parents, by occurrence of mental health problems.

	Mental health problems in the older parent			Total analytic sample
	Yes, n = 150	No, n = 184		n = 334
	n (%)	n (%)	p value	n (%)
Sex			0.218
Women	109 (76.6)	108 (69.7)		217 (72.9)
Men	41 (23.4)	76 (30.3)		117 (27.2)
Age			0.709
Mean	88.7	88.7		88.7
SD	6.5	6.8		6.6
Range (min–max)	77–100	77–102		77–102
Marital/partnership status			0.017
Not married	0 (0.0)	4 (3.0)		4 (1.7)
Married/cohabiting	32 (26.0)	64 (38.4)		96 (32.8)
Divorced/separated	13 (10.2)	7 (5.8)		20 (7.8)
Widow/widower	105(63.8)	109 (52.8)		214 (57.8)
Level of education			0.132
Compulsory	100 (65.3)	138 (74.2)		238 (70.2)
Higher than compulsory	50 (34.7)	46 (25.8)		96 (29.8)
Self-rated health (SRH)			0.001
Poor	26 (18.5)	18 (9.1)		44 (13.4)
Neither god/nor poor	80 (56.0)	81 (46.9)		161 (51.1)
Good	44 (25.5)	85 (43.9)		129 (35.5)
Activity of daily living (ADL)^a			0.055
Not able to perform one or more of the tasks	69 (39.5)	66 (28.0)		135 (33.2)
Able to perform all five tasks	81 (60.5)	118 (72.0)		199 (66.8)
Instrumental activity of daily living (IADL)^b			0.409
Not able to perform one or more of the tasks or living in an institution	123 (75.1)	143 (70.2)		266 (72.4)
Able to perform all three tasks	27 (24.9)	41 (29.8)		68 (27.6)
Social support			0.242
No	14 (8.1)	8 (4.4)		22 (6.1)
Yes	136 (91.9)	176 (95.6)		312 (93.9)

Note: Older parent’s mental health problems were coded; no = no depressive symptoms/deep sadness or nervous problems (anxiety, nervousness, anguish); and yes = moderate or severe mental health problems. n=not weighted. Percentage %=weighted. P value was calculated with unadjusted logistic regressions analyses with weights to indicate a difference between older adults with and without mental health problems.

^aEating, toilet visit, dressing and undressing, getting and going to bed and hair washing.

^bBuying food, preparing food/cooking and cleaning the house.

Table 2. Associations between older parent’s mental health and the primary caregiving child’s job strain.

Job strain	Older parent’s mental health problems, n = 334
Crude model	OR	95% CI	p value
High demand (ref. low demand)^a	0.86	0.52–1.43	0.565
Low control (ref. high control)^a	1.84	1.08–3.15	0.026
High strain (ref. all others)^b	1.78	0.87–3.64	0.113
Adjusted model
High demand (ref. low demand)^a	1.08	0.60–1.95	0.799
Low control (ref. high control)^a	2.52	1.27–5.02	0.008
High strain (ref. all others)^b	2.56	1.02–6.38	0.044

Note: OR = Odds ratio, CI = Confidence interval. Mental health problems in older age were a binary variable (no problems; any (moderate or severe) problems). The analyses were adjusted for the older parent’s sex, age, marital/partnership status, level of education, SRH, IADL, ADL, social support, amount of help from their children, conflict with their children, physical distance to their children, as well as primary caregiver child’s age, sex, and occupational social class. ^aRange 0–10 dichotomized with a median split. ^b’All others’ refers to low strain (low demand and high control), passive jobs (low demand and low control) and active jobs (high demand and high control).

Data availability statement

Public access to the database may be given if applicants have a scientific affiliation, sign a statement that the data will only be used for scientific purposes, and that the scientific project has ethical approval. Applicable sections of The Swedish Research Council (VR) principles for conducting research in humanities and the social sciences must be adhered to (http://www.codex.vr.se/en/forskninghumsam.shtml). Data will be available after the above-mentioned documents have been received, by email at the SWEOLD Research Data Center [email protected] More information can be found at www.sweold.se.