Predictors of mental health problems in formal and informal caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease

BMC Psychiatry

Table 1 Demographic characteristics and key variables for informal and formal caregivers

	Informal caregivers (n = 50)		Formal caregivers (n = 50)
Variable	M	SD	M	SD	t	d
Age of caregivers	58.76	16.23	52.92	8.95	2.23*	0.45
Duration of care	6.61	4.93	3.66	2.91	3.64***	0.74
Time spent caring per week	26.68	6.39	30.96	6.39	−3.35**	0.68
Proportions					χ²
Caregiver sex
Female	33^a		45^b		8.39**	-
Male	17^a		5^b
Caregiver education
Primary school graduate	2^a		1^a
Vocational school graduate	2^a		4^a		12.97**	-
High school graduate	14^a		30^b
University graduate	32^a		15^b
Help from others
None	14^a		2^b
From one source	22^a		15^a		20.02***	-
From many sources	13^a		33^b
Unknown	1^a		0^a
Stages of Alzheimer’s disease
First stage	13^a		24^b
Second stage	25^a		19^b		5.04*	-
Third stage	12^a		7^b

Note. d = Cohen’s d for effect size measures; M = mean; SD = standard deviation; t = Student’s t test; χ² = chi-squared test
* p < 0.05. ** p < 0.01. *** p < 0.001

ISSN: 1471-244X