[Determinants of care burden among spouses and children of physically impaired elderly]

The study focused on determinants of care burden among spouses and children providing care to older adults. The care recipients in this study are older adults who participated in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) since 1992. A selected subsample of 155 chronically ill respondents with a need for care, 78 of their spouses and 337 of their children participated in a side-study on family care giving. The results show that 32% of the spouses and 40% of the children assists the older adult with personal and/or domestic care. These spouses have provided care for many years with both domestic as well as personal care. The care providing children predominantly assist with household activities and share these tasks with siblings. Children are more likely to provide care when the spouse is not available or not able to provide care. Professional care does not effect children's care behavior. Half of the spouse-carers and one-fifth of the child-carers experienced heavy care burden. A higher care burden is associated with providing personal care, experiencing more negative consequences, and a larger need for assistance. Burdened child-carers also report lower feelings of competence, less consulting with siblings and more disagreement with siblings on caregiving issues. These findings point out that caregiving is not an individual task but a family matter. Support of carers should not only be directed at a decrease of the care load and an strengthening of individual capacities, but also at recruiting other informal (family) caregivers in order to divide the load of care giving more evenly among all those involved.