Psychological Well-Being, Spousal Caregiving and Utilization of Healthcare Services Among Older Adults

There is a growing body of literature on older spousal caregivers’ health behaviors and their psychological well-being (PSW). However, less is known about their association. This study examined the association between PSW and healthcare service use among older adults. It also examined the moderating effect of spousal caregiver status. Data were drawn from HRS 2014 and HRS 2016. Sample size was 2435, including 237 spousal caregivers, 185 non-caregivers without need, and 2013 non-caregivers with need. Four domains of PSW were assessed: purpose of life, life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Negative binomial regression and Poisson regression were used to analyze the association between participants’ PSW and their physician visits and their preventive care service use, as well as the moderating effect of caregiver status. Physician visit was not associated with any domain of PSW. Older male adults having a higher level of negative affect and older female adults having a higher level of purpose of life were likely to use more types of preventive care services. Moreover, caregivers’ service use was not more responsive to PSW. Future research is recommended to test the long-term impact from positive and negative affect, and it is warranted to explore the dynamics of health behaviors of non-caregivers with need.