Cargando…

Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany

PURPOSE: This study aims to analyze if and how conspiracy mentality is associated with mental health, burden and perceived social isolation and loneliness of informal caregivers of older individuals with care needs. METHODS: A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants had to be...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zwar, Larissa, König, Hans-Helmut, Hajek, André
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9255449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35789451
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03177-0
_version_ 1784740923319517184
author Zwar, Larissa
König, Hans-Helmut
Hajek, André
author_facet Zwar, Larissa
König, Hans-Helmut
Hajek, André
author_sort Zwar, Larissa
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: This study aims to analyze if and how conspiracy mentality is associated with mental health, burden and perceived social isolation and loneliness of informal caregivers of older individuals with care needs. METHODS: A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants had to be at least 40 years of age and were drawn randomly from the German online panel forsa.omninet and questioned between the 4th and 19th of March 2021. A sample of 489 informal caregivers (relatives and non-relatives supporting individuals aged ≥ 60 years) was questioned. Conspiracy mentality, depressive symptoms, loneliness and social exclusion were measured with validated instruments (e.g., The Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire). Questions referred to the last three months prior to assessment. Multiple linear regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic, economic and health factors and indicators of the pandemic, were conducted. RESULTS: Findings indicate a significant positive association between conspiracy mentality and caregiver burden, loneliness, social exclusion, and depressive symptoms. No gender differences were found for any outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that conspiracy mentality could be a risk factor for mental health, perceived social isolation and loneliness, and contribute to increased caregiver burden among informal caregivers of older care recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, informal caregivers could benefit from actions focused on reducing conspiracy mentality during a health crisis, which could improve psychosocial health and wellbeing in this vulnerable group. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-022-03177-0.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9255449
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Springer International Publishing
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-92554492022-07-06 Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany Zwar, Larissa König, Hans-Helmut Hajek, André Qual Life Res Article PURPOSE: This study aims to analyze if and how conspiracy mentality is associated with mental health, burden and perceived social isolation and loneliness of informal caregivers of older individuals with care needs. METHODS: A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants had to be at least 40 years of age and were drawn randomly from the German online panel forsa.omninet and questioned between the 4th and 19th of March 2021. A sample of 489 informal caregivers (relatives and non-relatives supporting individuals aged ≥ 60 years) was questioned. Conspiracy mentality, depressive symptoms, loneliness and social exclusion were measured with validated instruments (e.g., The Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire). Questions referred to the last three months prior to assessment. Multiple linear regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic, economic and health factors and indicators of the pandemic, were conducted. RESULTS: Findings indicate a significant positive association between conspiracy mentality and caregiver burden, loneliness, social exclusion, and depressive symptoms. No gender differences were found for any outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that conspiracy mentality could be a risk factor for mental health, perceived social isolation and loneliness, and contribute to increased caregiver burden among informal caregivers of older care recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, informal caregivers could benefit from actions focused on reducing conspiracy mentality during a health crisis, which could improve psychosocial health and wellbeing in this vulnerable group. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-022-03177-0. Springer International Publishing 2022-07-05 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9255449/ /pubmed/35789451 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03177-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Zwar, Larissa
König, Hans-Helmut
Hajek, André
Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany
title Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany
title_full Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany
title_fullStr Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany
title_full_unstemmed Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany
title_short Conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from Germany
title_sort conspiracy mentality among informal caregivers as a risk factor for caregiver burden, mental health, perceived loneliness and social isolation during the covid-19 pandemic: findings of a representative online study from germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9255449/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35789451
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11136-022-03177-0
work_keys_str_mv AT zwarlarissa conspiracymentalityamonginformalcaregiversasariskfactorforcaregiverburdenmentalhealthperceivedlonelinessandsocialisolationduringthecovid19pandemicfindingsofarepresentativeonlinestudyfromgermany
AT konighanshelmut conspiracymentalityamonginformalcaregiversasariskfactorforcaregiverburdenmentalhealthperceivedlonelinessandsocialisolationduringthecovid19pandemicfindingsofarepresentativeonlinestudyfromgermany
AT hajekandre conspiracymentalityamonginformalcaregiversasariskfactorforcaregiverburdenmentalhealthperceivedlonelinessandsocialisolationduringthecovid19pandemicfindingsofarepresentativeonlinestudyfromgermany