Schaps, Valerie;
McMunn, Anne;
Deindl, Christian;
Wahrendorf, Morten;
(2025)
Carer mental health in Europe. Does it matter who you care for? Cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from SHARE.
Aging & Mental Health
10.1080/13607863.2025.2558889.
(In press).
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Abstract
Objectives: Caring takes place in different locations and involves different relationship types with the care recipient. Although these aspects appear to be important for health, they have only been loosely addressed in research. // Methods: We used information on caring from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and distinguished between care provided to spouses, parents (in-law), children, other relatives or non-relatives. We investigated cross-sectional (n = 62.717) and longitudinal associations (n = 41.947) between mental health, assessed by the EURO-D depression scale, and caring. // Results: About 8% of men and 10% of women provided care inside (mostly for spouses) and 3% of men and 8% of women outside the household (mostly for parents). Caring for primary relatives was associated with increased depressive symptoms, particularly for females caring inside the household. Respondents providing care to their cohabiting spouse experienced an increase in depressive symptoms even in the long run (Men: Coef. 0.213, 95% CI 0.09–0.33; Women: Coef. 0.265, CI 0.15–0.38). // Conclusion: The relationship type is one important aspect associated with carer mental health. More attention is needed on gender differences in caring, mental health of carers of primary relatives and long-term effects of spousal care inside the household.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Carer mental health in Europe. Does it matter who you care for? Cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from SHARE |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13607863.2025.2558889 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2025.2558889 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Caring; mental health; depressive symptoms; relationship type |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10215674 |
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