Impact of Long-Term Care Burden on Working Age Carers: A Scoping Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55712/fj3y4a87Keywords:
informal unpaid care, long-term care, health, well-being, family, quality of life, burdenAbstract
Caregivers of chronically ill, disabled, or elderly family members encounter substantial physical, social, emotional, and financial difficulties. This study aims to identify how the stresses and strains associated with caregiving for family members impact caregivers’ perceptions of health, well-being, and quality of life. Method: A systematic scoping review was done using PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, JSTOR, EBSCO and Google Scholar, to search for primary research on caregiver burden, published between 2019 and 2023, and in English. Fifteen quantitative research studies were selected for the study. Results: Thematic analysis on characteristics that impact the health, well-being and quality of life of caregivers, most of whom are women, showed that women self-perceived the negative impact of care burden more than men did while increasing the range of type of care provided increase women’s self-perceptions of their abilities. In developing country contexts, caregiving for elderly family members can begin earlier in the lifespan, thus increasing the care burden. Perception of lack of competence to provide care, doing more than 20 hours of unpaid caregiving per week, and caring for prolonged periods of time over years impacted the mental health of caregivers. Physical and mental health burden also depended on the level of physical, behavioural, and intellectual impairment of the care recipients. Providing low intensity unpaid care of less than ten hours per week appeared to boost carers’ self-perception of physical well-being. The perceived quality of available social support and work supervisor support was significant in reducing depressive symptoms and improved perceptions of wellbeing. Conclusion: To improve the well-being of caregivers, it is essential to provide respite care, palliative care, and end of life care facilities to reduce the number of care work hours per week the family carers provide, to reduce the duration of care, and to alleviate significant care burden. Social insurance based paid leave, means-based financial support for caregivers, with capacity development, and social support networks, can be implemented to reduce the disproportionate health and wealth penalties on those caring for ill, disabled, and elderly family members.
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