Assessing Racial and Ethnic Differences in Cardiovascular Disease in U.S. Family Caregivers of Persons With Dementia: Analysis of Data from the 2015-2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

The data are cross-sectional, so they cannot show that caregiving, race, or ethnicity caused differences in cardiovascular risk factors or conditions. All health information was self-reported, including depression, smoking, exercise, weight, diabetes, and diagnosed cardiovascular conditions, so recall and reporting errors are possible. Depression may have been underreported because of stigma, especially in some racial and ethnic groups. Physical activity was measured only as yes or no for any exercise in the past 30 days, so it did not show how much people exercised. The non-Hispanic Asian caregiver group was much smaller than the non-Hispanic White group, so comparisons for that group are less stable. Some important cardiovascular risk factors, including anxiety, sleep disturbance, hypertension, high cholesterol, and diet, were not measured. Caregiving intensity was measured only as hours of care per week, which may not capture the energy required by different types of care.

Do not read the risk factor differences as evidence that minority caregivers have more diagnosed cardiovascular disease. The study found no differences in angina/coronary heart disease, stroke, or myocardial infarction.