TY  - JOUR
AU  - Georges, Daniela
AU  - Doblhammer, Gabriele
TI  - Informal care and mental health in Germany: What are the differences between non-migrants and ethnic German immigrants? A longitudinal comparative analysis.
JO  - Aging & mental health
VL  - 28
IS  - 3
SN  - 1360-7863
CY  - London [u.a.]
PB  - Taylor & Francis Group
M1  - DZNE-2024-00214
SP  - 436 - 447
PY  - 2024
AB  - In aging Germany, a large part of care is provided by informal caregivers. We aimed to analyze the main drivers of the mental health of caregivers and their intersection with migration status.Using panel data covering 18 years (n = 25,659 individuals, aged 16 to 103 years; mean age of 49.5 years) and applying linear regression models we investigated the association between informal caregiving and mental health. We compared non-migrant Germans (NMG) and ethnic German immigrants (EGI), who are the oldest immigrant group in Germany. Informal caregiving was defined as living with a person in need of care or by providing care for ≥2 h per day; the main health outcomes were mental health and mental health changes, measured by a metric scale of six items.Even accounting for selection into caregiving, short-term care seemed to be disadvantageous only for NMG, while long-term care was generally associated with poorer mental health, with a particular disadvantage for EGI. Socio-economic characteristics and personality traits affected mental health changes, but only weakly the caregiving-health association.Informal caregiving presents a health burden which is not explained by socio-economic characteristics and personality, but by migration status. Policies to promote health in an aging society need to consider differences in short- and long-term care provision and between migrants and the non-migrants.
KW  - Humans
KW  - Caregivers: psychology
KW  - Emigrants and Immigrants
KW  - European People
KW  - Germany
KW  - Health Promotion
KW  - Long-Term Care
KW  - Mental Health
KW  - Adolescent
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - Adult
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Aged
KW  - Aged, 80 and over
KW  - Health disparities (Other)
KW  - health inequalities (Other)
KW  - long-term care (Other)
KW  - migrant health (Other)
KW  - panel analysis (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:37885248
DO  - DOI:10.1080/13607863.2023.2271866
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/268462
ER  -