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Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand

BACKGROUND: Caregivers constitute an important informal workforce, often undervalued, facing challenges to maintain their caring role, health and wellbeing. Little is known about caregivers in middle-income countries like Thailand. This study investigates the physical and mental health of Thai adult...

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Autores principales: Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara, Harley, David, Seubsman, Sam-ang, Sleigh, Adrian C
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23267664
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1111
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author Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara
Harley, David
Seubsman, Sam-ang
Sleigh, Adrian C
author_facet Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara
Harley, David
Seubsman, Sam-ang
Sleigh, Adrian C
author_sort Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Caregivers constitute an important informal workforce, often undervalued, facing challenges to maintain their caring role, health and wellbeing. Little is known about caregivers in middle-income countries like Thailand. This study investigates the physical and mental health of Thai adult caregivers. METHODS: This report derives from distance-learning students working and residing throughout Thailand and recruited for a health-risk transition study in 2005 (N=87,134) from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. The cohort follow-up questionnaire in 2009 (N = 60,569) includes questions on caregiver status which were not available in 2005; accordingly, this study is confined to analysis of the 2009 data. We report cross-sectional associations between caregiver status and health. RESULTS: Among the study participants in 2009, 27.5% reported being part-time caregivers and 6.6% reported being full-time caregivers. Compared to male non-caregivers, being a part-time or full-time male caregiver was associated with lower back pain (covariate-Adjusted Odds Ratios, AOR 1.36 and 1.67), with poor psychological health (AOR 1.16 and 1.68), but not with poor self-assessed health. Compared to female non-caregivers, being a part- or full-time female caregiver was associated with lower back pain (AOR 1.47 and 1.84), psychological distress (AOR 1.32 and 1.52), and poor self-assessed health (AOR 1.21 and 1.34). CONCLUSIONS: Adult caregivers in Thailand experienced a consistent adverse physical and mental health burden. A dose–response effect was evident, with odds ratios higher for full-time caregivers than for part-time, and non-caregivers. Our findings should raise awareness of caregivers, their unmet needs, and support required in Thailand and other similar middle-income countries.
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spelling pubmed-35431642013-01-14 Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara Harley, David Seubsman, Sam-ang Sleigh, Adrian C BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Caregivers constitute an important informal workforce, often undervalued, facing challenges to maintain their caring role, health and wellbeing. Little is known about caregivers in middle-income countries like Thailand. This study investigates the physical and mental health of Thai adult caregivers. METHODS: This report derives from distance-learning students working and residing throughout Thailand and recruited for a health-risk transition study in 2005 (N=87,134) from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. The cohort follow-up questionnaire in 2009 (N = 60,569) includes questions on caregiver status which were not available in 2005; accordingly, this study is confined to analysis of the 2009 data. We report cross-sectional associations between caregiver status and health. RESULTS: Among the study participants in 2009, 27.5% reported being part-time caregivers and 6.6% reported being full-time caregivers. Compared to male non-caregivers, being a part-time or full-time male caregiver was associated with lower back pain (covariate-Adjusted Odds Ratios, AOR 1.36 and 1.67), with poor psychological health (AOR 1.16 and 1.68), but not with poor self-assessed health. Compared to female non-caregivers, being a part- or full-time female caregiver was associated with lower back pain (AOR 1.47 and 1.84), psychological distress (AOR 1.32 and 1.52), and poor self-assessed health (AOR 1.21 and 1.34). CONCLUSIONS: Adult caregivers in Thailand experienced a consistent adverse physical and mental health burden. A dose–response effect was evident, with odds ratios higher for full-time caregivers than for part-time, and non-caregivers. Our findings should raise awareness of caregivers, their unmet needs, and support required in Thailand and other similar middle-income countries. BioMed Central 2012-12-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3543164/ /pubmed/23267664 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1111 Text en Copyright ©2012 Yiengprugsawan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yiengprugsawan, Vasoontara
Harley, David
Seubsman, Sam-ang
Sleigh, Adrian C
Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand
title Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand
title_full Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand
title_fullStr Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand
title_full_unstemmed Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand
title_short Physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of Open University students in Thailand
title_sort physical and mental health among caregivers: findings from a cross-sectional study of open university students in thailand
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23267664
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1111
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