Examining mental and physical distress among male informal caregivers in the US

Research has shown that while female caregivers report worse health-related struggles, male caregivers are disproportionately more likely to report interferences with daily tasks due to health-related struggles. Because of this discrepancy, we conducted secondary analyses using the 2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to explore health-related interferences among a sample representative of adults across 40 US states.

We performed four Poisson regression models to assess whether: (1) risk of caregivers reporting interferences differed by sex, (2) male caregivers had higher risk of interferences compared to non-caregiving males, (3) interferences among caregivers overall differed by race/ethnicity, and (4) interferences among only male caregivers differed by race/ethnicity.

While controlling for relevant covariates, we found male caregivers had 19% higher risk of reporting interferences compared to female caregivers, and 17% higher risk compared to non-caregiving males. Among male caregivers, Asian male caregivers had 90% higher risk of reporting interferences compared to White male caregivers while Non-Latino other race male caregivers had 42% lower risk. Latino and Asian American caregivers overall had 27% and 65% higher risk respectively of reporting interferences relative to White caregivers.

These findings are important as they identify disparities in health-related interferences among groups of caregivers often overlooked in research and support services. Based on our findings, targeted interventions to support male caregivers and Latino and Asian caregivers overall should be a priority for health equity research and support networks.