Emerging costs in a “hidden” workforce: The longitudinal psychosocial effects of caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic among Norwegian adults

Abstract

During COVID-19 many informal caregivers experienced increased caregiving load while access to formal and informal support systems and coping resources decreased. Little is known about the psychosocial costs of these challenges for an essential yet vulnerable and hidden frontline workforce. This study explores and compares changes in psychosocial well-being (psychological well-being, psychological ill-being, and loneliness) before and across up to three stages of the COVID-19 pandemic among caregivers and non-caregivers. We also examine predictors of psychosocial well-being among caregivers during the peak of the pandemic. We use longitudinal data collected online in the Norwegian Counties Public Health Survey (age 18 to 92) in four countries and up to four data points (n=14,881). Caregivers are those who provide care unpaid, continuous (monthly or more often across all time points) help to someone with health problems. Findings show that levels of psychosocial well-being first remained stable but later, during the peak stages of the pandemic, dropped markedly. Caregivers (13 to 15% of the samples) report lower psychosocial well-being than non-caregivers both before and during the pandemic. Caregivers seem especially vulnerable in terms of ill-being, and during the peak of the pandemic caregivers report higher net levels of worry (OR = 1.22, p< .01) and anxiety (OR = 1.23, p< .01) than non-caregivers. As expected, impacts are graver for caregivers who provide more intensive care and those reporting health problems or poor access to social support. Our study findings are valuable information for interventions to support caregivers during this and future pandemics.