Psychological morbidity among informal caregivers of older people: a 2-year follow-up study

Background. It has long been assumed that mental frailty in older care-reci pients results in a deterioration in family caregivers' psychological well- being. This hypothesis has not been tested in longitudinal studies. Researc h about the impact on families of supporting older people in institutions i s limited. The present study examined psychological morbidity in informal c aregivers of frail older people at home and in institutions. Caregivers wer e followed up over 2 years. Predictors of psychological morbidity in caregi vers and factors related to deterioration in their wellbeing over time were identified. Methods, Two-year panel survey of informal caregivers of older care-recipie nts, using semistructured interview schedules and the 30-item GHQ. Care-rec ipients were those defined as physically or mentally frail after screening a stratified random sample of people aged greater than or equal to 65, Resp ondents were 276 caregivers of older people living at home at baseline and 47 visitors of those in long-term care at baseline. Results. There were no differences in GHQ scores between caregivers at home and visitors, and no changes in GHQ score over time. The strongest predict ors of psychological morbidity at follow-up, and of change in GHQ scores ov er time, were baseline GHQ score and indicators of subjective wellbeing. Ch aracteristics of care-recipients, including frailty type (mental or physica l), were not significantly associated with changes in caregivers' phycholog ical morbidity. Conclusions, Mental frailty in care-recipients was not associated with dete rioration over time in caregivers' psychological well-being. Caregiver char acteristics were stronger than those of care-recipients in predicting psych ological morbidity at follow-up and in predicting deteriorating wellbeing o ver time.