Caregiving, caring intensity, and allostatic load: A comparison of caring to others inside and outside the home

Objective: Caregiving to a sick or disabled relative is a key chronic stress model in health psychology. However, caregiving is not uniformly stressful, and this study tested whether caregiving effects on life satisfaction and allostatic load varies by caring intensity, i.e., caring within the home, outside the own home, or both (e.g. Dual caring).

Method: Using data from the UK Understanding Society Wave 2, a sample of non-caregivers (N = 3149) and caregivers (N = 562) met inclusion criteria and completed measures of life satisfaction and provided blood samples for capturing endocrine, cardiovascular and immune parameters for assessment of allostatic load.

Results: Dual caregivers had lower life satisfaction compared to non-carers, and other caregiver groups. Further, dual caregivers had higher levels of allostatic load compared to non-carers and those caring within the home and those caring outside the home. These group differences withstood adjustment for several co-variates including gender, education, income and lifestyle factors.

Conclusions: These results confirm that caregiving is not uniformly stressful with dual caring, an index of caring intensity being more damaging for health. The findings are also discussed in relation to the caregiver-control model of chronic stress.