Stress of Caring for Spouse Increases Risk of
Stroke, Especially for Black Men
Male spouse caregivers may need special support to
offset increased strain-related health risk
Jan. 15, 2010 - The stress of caring for a disabled
spouse appears to significantly increase the caregiver’s risk of future
stroke, especially among African-American men, says a researcher report
in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“‘Highly strained’ spouse caregivers have
significantly elevated stroke risk scores compared to spouse caregivers
reporting no strain,” said William E. Haley, Ph.D., study lead author
and professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South
Florida in Tampa.
Researchers compared levels of mental and emotional
strain, depressive symptoms, social network, education and age with
stroke risk estimates among 767 men and women (average age 68) who were
providing in-home care to disabled spouses. They found:
● High caregiving strain was associated with an
overall 23 percent higher estimated risk of stroke.
● The association was stronger in husbands than
in wives, and was highest by far in African-American men with high
caregiving strain, who had a 26.9 percent estimated 10-year stroke risk
— a score more than 10 points higher than for any other race/gender
group.
● Caregiver’s strain was not predictive of
higher heart disease risk.
The investigators studied numbers of male and
female and white and African-American spousal caregivers whose reported
strain levels (high, some, none) were compared on the Framingham Stroke
Risk and Coronary Heart Disease Risk scores that estimate the 10-year
risk of those diseases.
“Highly stressful caregiving can be chronic and
include many difficult and uncontrollable stressors such as witnessing
the suffering of a loved one . . . financial strain, social isolation
and providing physically and psychologically demanding personal care,”
Haley said.
“Male spouse caregivers may need special support.”
Study co-authors are David L. Roth, Ph.D.; George
Howard, Dr.P.H.; and Monika Safford, M.D. The National Institute for
Neurological Disorders and Stroke funded the study.
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Jan. 15, 2010 - The stress of caring for a disabled
spouse appears to significantly increase the caregiver’s risk of future
stroke, especially among African-American men, says a researcher report
in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
