An Assessment of Quality of Life Among Elderly Caregivers in Ghana

Abstract

As population ageing, urbanization and epidemiological changes accelerates across the world, the prevalence of caregiving by the elderly is bound to increase. This situation in which the elderly give care to others has been found in various settings to have adverse effects on the elderly’s well-being. However, there is a paucity of evidence confirming the existence of such negative effects among the elderly in Ghana who give care, especially as it impacts on their quality of life. The general objective of this work is to access the quality of life among caregivers aged 60 and above in Ghana.

This research was a descriptive study analysing secondary quantitative data consisting of 2595 observations obtained from the WHO Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE Wave 1) conducted in Ghana in 2007/08. Impact of care and quality of life indices were developed from relevant responses and the indices were tested for internal validity using the Cronbach alpha (α) test. Cross-tabulations (chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis tests) as well as simple and multiple ordinal logistic regressions were used in analysing the dataset on STATA version 13. A significance level of 5% was used to determine statistical significance for every relationship investigated.

About 5% of the 2595 elderly participants included in the study were caregivers, with almost two-thirds of them (63%) aged between 60-69 years old. Elderly caregivers significantly reported lower quality of life scores than non-caregivers [AOR= 0.658 95% CI=0.446 - 0.972] and a higher proportion (33.07%) of them significantly reported bad health than non-caregivers (21.61%). Most caregivers (64.66%) experienced lower burden of care, although moderate burden was more significantly associated with lower quality of life scores than lower burden [OR=0.411, 95% CI=0.189 - 0.897; p=0.026]. This relationship however ceased to be significant when adjusted by socio-demographic characteristics. The gender, age, educational status, occupational status and income quintile of elderly caregivers also had significant associations with the quality of life scores. Considering that caregiving affects the quality of life of the elderly in Ghana, these findings could help identify those at risk of lower quality of life due to their caregiving role and help in developing measures to alleviate that impact. Quality of life, caregiving impact, Elderly caregiver, self-reported health, Ghana