Paid Help and Caregiving Experiences of Black Caregivers of Community-Dwelling Older Adults

ABSTRACT

Objectives

We examine associations between use of paid help and caregiving-related experiences (emotional, financial, and physical difficulty) of Black family and unpaid caregivers of older adults.

Methods

We examine a sample of N = 572 non-Hispanic Black caregivers of community-dwelling older adults receiving help with daily activities from the 2015 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) and National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). Guided by Pearlin’s Stress Process Model, logistic regression models examine associations between assisting with finding paid help and caregiver experiences.

Results

Black caregivers who helped care recipients find paid help more often had a college degree or higher, were helping older adults who received assistance with three or more self-care/mobility activities or who were living in poverty and were not receiving help with caregiving from family and friends. In fully-adjusted models, assisting with finding paid help was associated with emotional (AOR 1.92, 95% CI 1.27, 2.92 p < .01) and physical (AOR 2.16, 95% CI 1.04, 4.51; p = .04) difficulty.

Conclusions

Greater efforts are needed to support Black family and unpaid caregivers who are caring for older adults using paid help.

Clinical Implications

Future interventions that target Black caregivers of older adults using paid help could be useful for improving caregiving experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• long-term services and supports
• caregiver burden
• race and ethnicity

Acknowledgments

Funds to support this pilot study were provided by the National Institute for Minority Health Disparities (NIMHD) through the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions of the under award U54MD000214 (CDF and LJP) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) award K01AG066812 (LJP).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available at https://www.nhats.org

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2022.2099776

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging [R01AG049692-02 S1]; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [U54MD000214].