Journal article

Impact of informal caregiving on depressive symptoms among a national cohort of men

TL King, PP Vitaliano, H Maheen, Y Taouk

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health | BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2024

Abstract

Background There is evidence that unpaid caregiving can have negative effects on the mental health of female caregivers; however, evidence of impacts on male caregivers is limited. This study addressed this gap by examining associations between becoming a caregiver and depressive symptoms among men. Methods We used data from waves 1-2 (2013, 2016) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Male Health (Ten to Men). Effects of incident caregiving on depressive symptoms were estimated using augmented inverse probability treatment weighting, with adjustment for potential confounders. Incident caregiving was assessed as a binary variable (became a caregiver vs not), and depressive symptoms were mea..

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Grants

Awarded by Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Government


Funding Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper is based was conducted as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health (Ten to Men) by the University of Melbourne. We are grateful to the Australian Government Department of Health for funding and to the boys and men who provided the data. Ten to Men is managed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. Ten to Men research data are the intellectual property of the Commonwealth.