RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Due to the increased population of elderly people requiring care and assisted living care, as well as changes in the social structure, the number of males playing a role in home care has therefore been increasing each year. The purpose of this study was to clarify characteristics related to subjective mental and physical health of male family caregivers based on a comparison with male non-caregivers. METHODS: The subjects comprised 52 male family caregivers (caregiver group) who provide care for those requiring at-home care at level 3 or above, or who provided care for people with dementia in cases at a level below 3, with an average age and standard deviation of 69.3 +/- 10.9 years old. The comparison group comprised 52 people who underwent regular health checkups in K city, whose gender and ages, by 10-year age group, were matched to the subjects on a 1:1 basis, and whose average age and standard deviation were 69.2 +/- 11.1 years old. The research was conducted over ther period from December 2005 to April 2007. The survey was conducted with a self-answering format, and subjects were asked questions about such matters as lifestyle, QOL, psychosocial stress and coping with stress. RESULTS: The average age of people requiring care was 75.7 +/- 9.5 years old, and it became apparent that elderly caregivers generally provide care for other elderly people. In a health-related QOL (SF-8), care-giver group were significantly low in "General Health" and "Bodily Pain" in the physical health domain. In the mental health domain, "Mental Health" and mental health summary score of the care-giver group were significantly low. Regarding lifestyle, it was apparent that the care-giver group had significantly fewer sleeping hours than the control group and the PSQI score was also lower. Coping scores were significantly low for the caregiver group regarding 2 items, "Evasive Thinking" and "Recreation", and this indicated a tendency toward not adopting an evasive type of coping. CONCLUSION: It became clear that male caregivers have low subjective health and experience problems about sleep and stress. In addition, they tended not to take coping of evasion type and a need of comprehensive support was suggested.
