1. Kings County Caregivers and Unpaid Caregiving Deborah Kiceniuk, PhD Adrian MacKenzie, BSc Andrew Harvey, PhD

2. Unpaid Caregiving Unpaid work households do by and for themselves, including domestic chores, childcare, and shopping

3. Objectives  1. To examine the relationship between caregiving and health behaviours and practices in relation to demographic variables  2. To examine similarities and differences in health behaviours and practices between caregivers in two Nova Scotian communities in relation to demographic variables

4. Variables – What we looked at!  Demographics »gender, marital status, education, age, income, and occupational status  Health Status »perceived physical and emotional health »objective measures – limited activity and medication use

5. Variables – cont’d Health Care Utilization » frequency of visits to physicians, other health care providers, mental health professionals, OP/Emerg. Health Behaviours » frequency of pap smears & mammograms, » smoking, exercise within various time frames

6. Variables – cont’d  Social Support » frequency of contacting relatives or neighbours » frequency in attending religious events » ability to partake volunteer activities

7. Hypotheses – what we expected!  Caregivers are more likely to be female, married, middle-aged, unemployed or not in the workforce, less education, lower income  Caregivers poorer emotional health status, and similar physical health status  Caregivers and non-caregivers will have similar health utilization and health behaviour patterns

8. Kings County - respondents 70% response rate 1869 respondents 57% Aged 45+ 65% Household inc. $35,000+ 55% Female 40% University/ Community College 73% Married or Living CL

9. Demographics

10. Gender

11. Age

12. Marital Status

13. Main Activity

14. Household Income

15. Education Level

16. Emotional and Physical Health

17. Perceived Health Status

18. Activity Limitations

19. Pain Relievers/Anti-inflammatory

20. Stomach Remedies

21. Stress Levels

22. Time with Friends/Family

23. Trying to Accomplish More

24. Health Care Utilization

25. Physician Contact

26. Social Support

27. Contact with Family

28. Contact with Neighbors

29. Kings County and Glace Bay - Caregivers

30. Hypothesis 2 – What we expected  The population of Kings County will be younger than that of Glace Bay  Based on age: »Glace Bay caregivers will use health care services more frequently than Kings County »caregivers in Glace Bay will have lower income levels than those of Kings County

31. Age

32. Marital Status

33. Main Activity

34. Gender

35. Education Level

36. Household Income

37. Perceived Health Status

38. Activity Limitations

39. Chronic Diseases  Caregivers  Twice as many CG migraine headaches, and intestinal disorders  Three times as many CG bowel disorders

40. Pain Relievers/Anti-inflammatory

41. Anti-depressants

42. Asthma Medications

43. Contact with Physicians

44. ER/OP Visits

45. Smoking

46. Exercise

47. Contact with Neighbours

48. Contact with Relatives

49. Suggestions for Future Research  Resource availability  Factors associated with care-receiver’s illness  Length of time in caregiver role  Caregiver’s health status pre- and post- caregiving role