A day in the life of caregivers to older adults with and without dementia: Comparisons of care time and emotional health

Introduction: How care-related time and emotional health over the day differ for those assisting older adults with and without dementia is unclear. Methods: Using 2134 time diaries from the National Study of Caregiving, we compared emotional health and care time for caregivers of older adults with and without dementia. Results: Caregivers to older adults with dementia experienced worse (higher scores) on a composite measure of negative emotional health (4.2 vs 3.3; P <.05) and provided more physical/medical care (33.7 vs 16.2 minutes; P <.05) and less transportation assistance (12.6 vs 24.8 minutes; P <.05) than other caregivers. In models, providing physical/medical care was associated with worse emotional health (β = 0.15; P <.01) and socializing with the care recipient was associated with worse emotional health when the recipient had dementia (β = 0.28; P <.01). Discussion: Findings highlight the opportunity for targeted interventions to address the emotional consequences of different types of care time in the context of dementia.