Transcript Slide 1

5th International Conference on Social Work
in Health and Mental Health (10-14 December 2006)
Spousal Caregiving:
Keeping Healthy
Dr Ng Guat Tin
Asst Professor, Department of Social Work
National University of Singapore
Email: [email protected]
Caregiver quote
“I told him (husband), ‘Why you
make me so angry? You better
not stress me.’ Sometimes a carer
can die before the patient does
(laughing)”
Spousal caregiver, 60 years old. Had
breast cancer herself in year 2000 and
recovered.
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Literature on Caregiver Health
• Effects of caregiving stressor on
caregivers’ psychosocial and physical
health and moderating/mediating factors
*****
• Health behaviors/health habits/health
promotion or preventive practices of
caregivers **
• Facilitation of health of care recipients *
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Literature on Caregiver Health
• Consistent finding:
– Higher levels of depression and other
psychological symptoms (Pinquart &
Sorensen, 2003; Scharlach et al., 1997;
Vitalianao, Zhang, & Scanlan, 2003)
• Inconsistent findings:
– Higher odds of not getting enough rest, not
having enough time to exercise, not having
time to recuperate from illness, and
forgetting to take prescription medications
(Burton et al., 1997)
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Literature on Caregiver Health
• Inconsistent findings:
– More likely to eat breakfast daily, get flu
shots, and receive pneumonia jabs but do not
differ on 10 other health promotion/risk
behaviors (Scharlach et al., 1997)
– Leisure-time exercise lower in spousal
caregivers and non-spouse caregivers than
married non-caregivers (Fredman et al., 2006)
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Methodology
• Study aim
• Sample description
• Qualitative
interviews/Thematic analysis
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Major themes
A. Caregiver health promotion
1. Physical health promotion
behavior
2. Psychosocial health
promotion behavior
B. Formal support and health
care of caregivers
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Major themes and sub-themes
Caregiver health
promotion
Physical health
promotion behaviors
•Regularity of
exercise
•Getting physical
check-up or
examination
•Adequacy of sleep
Formal support
and health care of caregivers
Psycho-social health
promotion behaviors
•Taking care of self
•Getting support from
paid help
•Taking respite
•Getting social
support
•Getting spiritual
support
•Giving
advice/information
•Providing direct
caregiver support
services
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