Well-being suffers when caring for relatives

In addition to a steady decline in life satisfaction and emotional health, the results also showed an increase in loneliness and anxiety, particularly among women, the UZH announced on Wednesday. Women are probably particularly at risk, as they tend to take on more responsibility for close family members.

The study also found that, regardless of gender, the more time caregivers spend on a daily basis, the more their well-being suffers. The intensity of care, the relationship between the carer and the person in need of care and full-time employment only have a minor influence on the general deterioration in well-being. Carers in different contexts are confronted with similar challenges.

"Although these results show that caring for relatives can be associated with stress, the individual experience can vary," co-author Michael Krämer was quoted as saying in the press release. "There are other aspects of psychological well-being, such as the search for meaning, which we were unable to assess with this data." Some of the family caregivers may well find meaning in their role.

According to the authors of the study, the results underline the need for measures to reduce reliance on informal care. These include, for example, improved access to formal long-term care or mixed care solutions.