Informal Home Caregiving in a Gender Perspective: A Selected Literature Review

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Understanding Male Caregivers’ Emotional, Financial, and Physical Burden in the United States

“…Though an earlier body of literature documented that, compared to women caregivers, men faced lower levels of depression, strain, and psychological distress, other studies have disputed these findings [26,27,28,29]. Men may underreport the level of burden they experience because they are less likely to admit their negative feelings [26,30] or less in tune with how to process and share emotions [28,29,31], because existing burden instruments may not accurately speak to men’s experiences of burden [11], or because acknowledgment of burden could be culturally unacceptable [16]. Regardless of whether the literature favors one side or the other, or if men downplay their burden when answering these surveys, they do experience caregiver burden and self-esteem issues [30,32,33]: 62% reported moderate to very stressful caregiving experience and 46% moderate to severe physical strain [3].…”

Reactions of primary caregivers of frail older people and people with cancer in the palliative phase living at home

“…Studies by Lindquist et al (2004) and Jacobi et al (2003) showed that caregiving influences the caregiver's options to do other activities and may give the helper as the feeling of being tied down. Several studies point out the importance of help, both from the public sector as well as informal help, to avoid carers feeling solely responsible for the person needing care (Stoltz et al 2004).…”

Family Caregivers' Daily Life Caring for a Spouse and Utilizing Respite Care in the Community

“…Informal health-care is usually performed by someone in the family and mostly by women (8,17). Since the caring role can be experienced differently by men and women when it comes to workload, it is important to consider this when planning needs of support from the community (14,18).…”