Care and the Health and Wellbeing of over 50's in South Africa

A new paper examining the association between care-giving/receiving and the health and wellbeing of people aged 50 and over in rural South Africa has been published in the journal 'Ageing and Society'. CPC colleagues have worked with researchers at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, to assess the relationship between care-giving and/or care-receiving with functional disability, quality of life/emotional wellbeing, and self-rated health status while adjusting for socio-demographic factors.

The research, which used data from the World Health Organisation, finds that 63% of older people in the study were giving care to at least one young adult or child, with over 27% of care giving to adults due to HIV-related reasons. 84 % of the sample were receiving care, mainly from their adult children, grandchildren and spouse.

The study found that those who give care are more likely than non-care-givers to have good functional ability, as measured by ability to perform activities of daily living. This relationship was stronger for older people providing care-giving to adults than to children. However, care-givers were less likely to report good emotional wellbeing; again the relationship was stronger for care-givers to adults than children. Simultaneous care-giving and -receiving was likewise associated with good functional ability, but people simultaneously giving and receiving care were found to have about a 47 per cent lower chance of good emotional wellbeing than others. Participants who were HIV-infected were more likely to be in better health but less likely to be receiving care than those who were HIV-affected.

Findings suggest a strong relationship between care-giving and poor emotional wellbeing via an economic or psychological stressor pathway. Interventions that improve older people's socio-economic circumstances and reduce financial hardship as well as those that provide social support would go some way towards mitigating this relationship.

The full paper, which is open access, can be viewed here.

Posted 11/09/2013 13:54