View article

ContextThere is strong consensus that caring for an elderly individual with disability is burdensome and stressful to many family members and contributes to psychiatric morbidity. Researchers have also suggested that the combination of loss, prolonged distress, the physical demands of caregiving, and biological vulnerabilities of older caregivers may compromise their physiological functioning and increase their risk for physical health problems, leading to increased mortality.ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between caregiving demands among older spousal caregivers and 4-year all-cause mortality, controlling for sociodemographic factors, prevalent clinical disease, and subclinical disease at baseline.DesignProspective population-based cohort study, from 1993 through 1998 with an average of 4.5 years of follow-up.SettingFour US communities.ParticipantsA total of 392 caregivers and 427 noncaregivers …