An integrative review of the social determinants of mental health among older caregivers.
Roosa-Maria Savela, Ursula Schwab, Tarja Välimäki
PMID 34655273WHAT IT FOUND
Older caregivers with poorer perceived health, lower income or education, and female caregivers reported more depression, anxiety or burden, but the links were inconsistent across included studies.
Key findings
01Older caregivers' poor perceived physical health was the most cited determinant linked to mental health inequalities, including emotional exhaustion, burden, depression and anxiety.
02Lower socioeconomic status, income or education was associated with more depression or burden in several studies, but results were mixed or conflicting.
03Female caregivers had more depression than male caregivers in some studies, including 39% versus 24%, but ethnicity data were sparse.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review included 12 articles from 1,086 screened, and it did not report the total number of caregivers across those studies. Most included articles were cross-sectional, so the links do not show cause and effect. All eligible articles were included regardless of methodological quality, and response rates ranged from 27% to 71% but were rarely reported. Depression and anxiety were measured differently across studies, and some results were given as p-values without confidence intervals. The search was limited to English articles, and ethnicity and sexual orientation data were sparse.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these links as proof that improving a caregiver's physical health, income or education will improve mental health. The included studies were mostly cross-sectional, and the review does not show that any intervention works.