General health perception, depression and quality of life in geriatric grandmothers providing care for grandchildren

Aim/background: To investigate levels of depression, quality of life, general health perception, and factors affecting these in grandmothers providing care for their grandchildren.

Material/method: One hundred two family physicians from four cities (Samsun, Amasya, Canakkale, and Izmir) in Turkey investigated 2859 women older than 65 years on their patient lists. Of these, 282 (9.8%) had spent at least 50 h caring for their grandchildren in the previous three months, and these were selected as the study group, while the remaining 2563 (89.6%) were enrolled as the control group. After all participants' demographic variables had been investigated, they completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Self-Function 12 (Mental and physical component score) (SF-12), and the Visual Analog Scale of EQ-5D (VAS). The participants in the study group also completed a questionnaire investigating features of their grandchild care.

Results: The study group (with the exception of custodial grandmothers) scored better on the SF-12 (PSC = 50.60 ± 6.96 vs 48.24 ± 8.12), (MCS = 49.70 ± 7.77 vs 45.48 ± 7.61), VAS (60.44 ± 23.5 vs 54.16 ± 19.5), and BDI (13.97 ± 0.3 vs 19.49 ± 0.2) compared to the control group (p < 0.0001 for all). Age, monthly income, mean length of education, duration of care, mean hours spent caregiving per week, being a custodial grandmother, presence of more than one chronic disease, and caring for more than one grandchild at a time were identified as factors affecting SF-12, VAS and BID in the study group.

Conclusion: Grandchild care positively affected the grandmothers' quality of life, depression levels, and general health perception, with the exception of custodial grandmothers.