Assessing Gender Differences on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Medical and Social Needs of Dementia Caregivers

ABSTRACT

Our analyses aimed to assess health status and critical needs of caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) during the COVID-19 pandemic by gender. Between March 2021 and August 2021, respondents (n = 267) were recruited from an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) listserv at an US academic center to complete a questionnaire to capture sociodemographic data, caregiving characteristics, health status, status of COVID-19 testing, and COVID-19 preventative practices during the pandemic. Women caregivers reported needing assistance with caregiving responsibilities, whereas men caregivers needed assistance with health and social resources. More men caregivers also reported psychological distress compared to women caregivers. Our findings indicated significant differences in the resources needed and psychological distress of women and men who cared for PWD during the COVID-19 pandemic. The development of recommendations and resources with both men and women caregivers in mind may be beneficial to support informal caregivers during emergency situations.

KEYWORDS:

• Dementia
• caregiving
• gender
• COVID-19
• mental health
• males

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the caregivers who participated in this study. In addition, we would like to acknowledge Deborah-Drew Ogonnaya Laz-Nwokeafor for her contributions to the development and writing of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors have nor potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Ethical approval

The Wake Forest University School of Medicine institutional review board approved this study (IRB00054717).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.