Impact of caring for persons with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia on caregivers’ health outcomes: findings from a community based survey in Japan

Table 3 Health outcomes as a function of caregiver status across propensity-matched groups

		Non-caregivers (n = 1297)		Caregivers (n = 1297)		Total (n = 2594)
		Mean/%	SD/n	Mean/%	SD/n	Mean/%	SD/n
PHQ-9		3.09	4.68	4.39*	5.47	3.74	5.13
PHQ-9: category	PHQ-9: < 10	91.4 %	1185	85.8 %	1113*	90.9 %	2298
PHQ-9: category	PHQ-9: ≥ 10 (MDD)	8.6 %	112	14.2 %	184*	9.1 %	296
Diagnosed comorbidities
	Depression	3.2 %	42	6.2 %	80*	3.4 %	122
	Insomnia	5.7 %	74	9.8 %	127*	4.5 %	201
	Anxiety	0.4 %	5	1.9 %	25*	0.9 %	30
	Hypertension	17.3 %	225	17.4 %	226	11.8 %	451
	Pain	10.6 %	138	15.5 %	201*	8.1 %	339
	Diabetes (Type 1/2)	7.9 %	103	6.1 %	79	3.7 %	182
SF-6D		0.764	0.123	0.724*	0.124	0.744	0.125
SF-36v2: Physical Component Summary		52.73	6.71	51.60*	6.61	52.17	6.69
SF-36v2: Mental Component Summary		48.60	9.52	46.00*	10.65	47.30	10.18
WPAI: % absenteeism: work missed due to health^a		3.08	12.30	5.40*	15.81	4.25	14.23
WPAI: % presenteeism-related impairment: impairment while working due to health^a		18.44	23.83	22.74*	25.39	20.62	24.72
WPAI: % overall work impairment^a		20.36	25.66	25.75*	28.18	23.09	27.09
WPAI: % activity impairment		21.79	25.37	25.41*	25.82	23.60	25.66
Emergency room visits, past 6 months		0.08	0.56	0.27*	1.68	0.18	1.26
Hospitalizations, past 6 months		0.81	6.72	0.79	5.15	0.80	5.99
Traditional healthcare provider visits, past 6 months		5.35	8.59	7.70*	18.50	6.53	14.47
Emergency room visits (1+), past 6 months		4.0 %	52	7.2 %	94*	3.3 %	146
Hospitalizations (1+), past 6 months		5.1 %	66	8.1 %	105*	4.1 %	171
Traditional healthcare provider visits (1+), past 6 months		61.9 %	803	74.9 %	971*	57.0 %	1774

Caregivers were defined as those currently caring for an adult relative with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, whereas non-caregivers were those not currently caring for an adult relative with any listed condition
MDD major depressive disorder, PHQ patient health questionnaire, SD standard deviation, SF short form, WPAI work productivity and activity impairment
*p < 0.05 for the two-tailed significance of differences across caregivers and non-caregivers within a given row
^aAbsenteeism and overall work impairment results were available only for employed respondents, excluding those who both worked and missed 0 h, as well as outliers who reported > 112 potential work hours in the past week (n = 1364: 691 caregivers and 673 non-caregivers). Presenteeism-related impairment results were available only for employed respondents who worked > 0 h in the past week (n = 1397: 709 caregivers and 688 non-caregivers)

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