Does Home Health Care Affect Strain and Depressive Symptomatology for Caregivers of Impaired Older Adults?

The demands of providing care to impaired older adults frequently results in strain and depressive symptomatology. These outcomes of caregiving may be affected by social support such as home health care. Forty-nine caregivers to impaired older adults receiving home health care and 51 caregivers not receiving home health care were interviewed soon after identification by hospital personnel and 3 months later. Strain and depressive symptomatology were not significantly lower and positive caregiving appraisal was not significantly higher for caregivers receiving home health care even when controlling for their pretest measures. Strain and depressive symptomatology were significantly higher for caregivers of cognitively impaired persons. Home health care nurses need to identify those caregivers at greater risk to individualize services.