Characterizing Caregiving Intensity Among Mexican-origin Women Caregivers

Objective (physical) caregiving burden has not often been associated with subjective (emotional) burden among Mexican-origin women caregivers. Yet, many studies show that Latina caregivers suffer from negative psychological outcomes related to caregiving at a higher rate than non-Latino Whites. This study considered whether self-rated intensity of ADL/IADL support explained the relationship between number of care recipient illnesses and caregiver emotional drain among Mexican American women caregivers.

Participants included Mexican-origin women caregivers (n = 132) in East Los Angeles, CA who completed a survey that asked culturally appropriate questions about their experiences caring for elderly relatives.

Logistic regression models indicated that ADL/IADL supports ranked as difficult were also chosen as causing emotional drain. Mediation models revealed a significant indirect effect of number of care recipient illnesses on caregiver emotional drain for English-speaking caregivers but not for Spanish-speaking caregivers. These results indicate that Mexican-origin women caregivers do experience subjective burden associated with specific objective ADL/IADL supports and suggest that culturally relevant survey design can assist in better understanding the emotional drain among this population.

Cultural values should be considered when discussing aspects of care provision with Mexican-origin women caregivers in order to elicit an accurate description of their informal caregiving experiences that may contribute to caregiver burden.