Longitudinal Correlates of Grandparenting with Depressive Symptoms and Poor Sleep Quality Among Middle-Aged and Older Women and Men in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Objectives

The study aimed to assess the impact of grandparenting on incident depressive symptoms and incident poor sleep quality among aging women and men in rural South Africa.

Methods

This longitudinal community study enrolled 3,237 adults (≥40 years) from the “Health and Ageing in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI).”

Measurements

Grandparenting was assessed by self-report at wave 1, and depressive symptoms and poor sleep quality at waves 1 and 2. Outcomes were incident depressive symptoms and incident poor sleep quality at wave 2. Logistic regression was utilized to estimate the associations between grandparenting and incident depressive symptoms and incident poor sleep quality.

Results

Almost half of the grandfathers (44.6%) and 68.4% of the grandmothers were parenting 7/days/week. In the final adjusted models, among grandmothers, compared to 0 days/week grandparenting, 7 days/week grandparenting reduced the odds of incident depressive symptoms (AOR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.55 to 0.91) and reduced the odds of incident poor sleep quality (AOR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.40 to 0.82).

Conclusion

Grandparenting significantly reduced poor mental health among grandmothers but not among grandfathers.

Clinical Implications

Practitioners may encourage grandparent caregiving, among grandmothers, to reduce poor mental health in South Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• grandparenting
• longitudinal study
• sleep quality
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

“HAALSI (Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa)” is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (grant number 1P01AG041710-01A1) and is conducted by the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies in partnership with Witwatersrand University. The Agincourt HDSS was supported by the Wellcome Trust, UK (058893/Z/99/A, 069683/Z/02/Z, 085477/Z/08/Z and085477/B/08/Z), the University of the Witwatersrand and South African Medical Research Council.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization, S.P., K.P.; Formal analysis, S.P., K.P.; Methodology/Validation, S.P., K.P.; Writing – original draft, S.P; Writing – review & editing, K.P. All authors have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data used in this study are publicly available at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (HCPDS) program website (www.haalsi.org).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.