Male caregivers are also at a higher risk of depressive symptoms

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-04-08 00:01

Australia; VIC

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Current evidence shows women who take on an informal caregiver role for another adult are at a higher risk of depressive symptoms, and a study by Australian researchers has found a similar increased risk for men. The researchers say most studies investigating the link between informal caregiving (providing unpaid care for an older adult or person with a disability, mental illness or health condition) and depressive symptoms have been carried on women, so they used data from a long term men's health study to investigate how becoming a caregiver impacted men's depressive symptoms over time. They say men who reported becoming a caregiver went on to report more depressive symptoms two years later than men who were not caregivers.