Caregiving, all-cause mortality and cause specific mortality: Findings from the NIH-AARP diet and health study

There have been conflicting findings in studies exploring the relationship between caregiving and mortality, which may relate to differences in type and intensity of caregiving.

In the prospective National Institutes of Health American Association of Retired Persons (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study (n = 148,792, mean age 70.8 years), we evaluated the association of caregiving with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality, and explore whether the association differed by type of caregiving (adult or children) and by duration. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for mortality associated with caregiving were estimated with the use of Cox proportional-hazards regression models, with non-caregivers as the reference category.

During a mean follow-up of 12.9 years, 59,046 deaths were recorded. Overall caregiving for adults (HR 0.90; 95 %CI 0.88-0.93) and children (HR 0.90; 95 %CI 0.87-0.92) were associated with a lower risk of all cause-mortality, which was consistent for cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular deaths.

Among older adults, caregiving was associated with an overall reduced risk of mortality. Future research should examine how the duration and type of caregiving, including physical and psychological components, affect caregiver health outcomes.