The informal caregiver's socioeconomic prism and its implications on state of mind

INTRODUCTION: The act of caring for a dependent elderly victim of cerebrovascular accident exerts different impacts on caregivers. Knowledge of their socioeconomic level by health professionals supports the planning and implementation of actions appropriate to the reality of the elderly and their caregivers. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether socioeconomic status predicts informal caregivers’ state of mind (depression). DESIGN: Cross-sectional, descriptive study in the Dão Lafões sub-region. PARTICIPANTS: Non-probabilistic sample of 636 informal caregivers, aged 17–85 years (mean = 50.19 ± 14.30). MEASURING INSTRUMENTS: The Beck Depression Inventory and the Graffar Socioeconomic Level Scale. RESULTS: We found class III (middle class family/reasonable socioeconomic status) was the most common (40.4%), class IV (upper lower class family/low socioeconomic level) with 37.7%. A majority of the sample (62.9%) does not have depressive symptoms, with their presence observed in 37.1% of informal caregivers, in which 24.3% are men and 39.6% women. The results sustain that socioeconomic level (P = .004) in the total sample predicts state of mind, inferring that caregivers with poorer socioeconomic status have a worse state of mind. CONCLUSIONS: The evidence found from the research show that informal caregivers with depressive symptoms have a poorer socioeconomic status, so that it is compulsory to consider these variables when planning interventions whose primary focus of attention is aimed at caregivers and elderly cerebrovascular accident victims experiencing situations of transition.