Abstract
The purpose of this study is to assess the state of health and quality of life of aged caregivers in a particular community. We surveyed the gender, age, caregiving experience, state of physical and mental health, health practice index, score for overall satisfaction in life and capacity to provide social support of 567 aged persons, aged 65 years or older, living in M city in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan. Date for caregivers and noncaregivers were compared and the following results were obtained. (1) Of the 345 females and 222 males surveyed, 15 (4.3%) and 4 (1.8%), respectively, were caregivers (total 19 (3.4%)). The average age of female caregivers was 72.07±5.22 and that of male caregivers was 79.75±7.89 ; the avarage age of male caregivers was higher than that of female caregivers. (2) The level of depression was significantly higher in females than in males (p<0.05), and the level of overall satisfaction in life was significantly lower in females than in males (p< 0.05). The score for the capacity to provide social support was significantly higher in males than in females (p<0.01) , however, the health practice index was significantly higher in famales than in males (p<0.05). In particular, drinking and smoking habits were significantly higher in males than in females (p<0.001). (3) In the comparison between caregivers and noncaregivers, the level of depression tended to be higher in caregivers than in noncaregivers among the males (p<0.1). Conversely, the level of depression tended to be lower in caregivers than in noncaregivers among the females (p <0.1). There were no significant differences in the other factors surveyed.
