Caregiving and mental health among workers: Longitudinal evidence from a large cohort of adults in Thailand

Abstract

BACKGROUND: As people in middle and lower income countries live longer, more people become sick, disabled, and frail and the demand for family caregiving grows. Thailand faces such challenges. This study investigates the relationship between caregiving and mental health among workers drawn from a large longitudinal cohort of Thai adults. METHODS: Participants were drawn from the Thai Health-Risk Transition Study, a cohort study since 2005 of distance-learning adult Open University students residing nationwide. Caregiving status and binary psychological distress outcome (score 19-30 on Kessler 6) were recorded in 2009 and 2013 among cohort members who were paid workers at both years (n=33,972..