Effect of caregiving strains on caregiver's perceived health with a critical change point of Medicare eligible age

Objectives: Despite a great amount of caregiving studies, there are only few studies focusing on the effect of Medicare on caregiver's health outcomes. In this study, the authors report on the effect of caregiving strains on caregiver's perceived health at a national level. Specifically, we examine how care recipient's age affects caregiver's health status, allowing for its change point at age 65, based on the eligibility of Medicare. We suggest a hypothetical model on caregiver's health based on the expectation of caregiving burden and duration. It is to explain the empirical study outcome of different care recipient's age effect between the age group <65 and >=65. Methods: The study employed ‘2009 Caregiving in the U.S.' data and 1,397 respondents were included using multivariate analyses. A single item was scaled for caregiver's perceived health from 1 (=poor) to 5 (=excellent). The linear spline models were used to investigate the change in linear relationship at care recipient's age 65. Results: The relationship between care recipient's age and caregiver's perceived health was negative for <65 age group (beta=-0.02, p=0.13) but positive for >=65 age group (beta=0.02, p<0.05). Moreover, the shape of the relationship between caregiving strains, such as physical strain, financial hardship, and information seeking behaviors on caregiver's perceived health differed by caregiver's age group (<60 and >=60) (p<0.05). Conclusions: This study result suggests that Medicare provides a positive effect on caregiver's health by resolving financial hardships. We further suggest that different supports and interventions will be necessary for each caregiver group.