Cardiovascular disease-related healthcare visits among family caregivers: register-based study

Background

As the population ages, demand for informal care increases. To enable family caregivers to provide sustained support, it is important to recognise their use of healthcare services and the health risks they face. This study aimed to examine how family caregivers providing high-intensity care used specialised healthcare for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) compared with non-caregivers.

Methods

In 2012, all officially recognised family caregivers in Finland (n = 42,256, mean age 67, 71% women) were identified from a national register. A matched control group was selected by age, sex, and municipality of residence (n = 83,618). Information on specialised healthcare visits due to CVDs was obtained from the national Care Register for Health Care for 2012–2017. Data were analysed using general linear models adjusted for socioeconomic status and urbanisation level of the municipality of residence.

Results

Overall, there was no significant difference in the total number of CVD-related specialised healthcare visits between caregivers and controls. Caregivers had 381 CVD-related visits per 1000 person-years, compared with 379 for controls. Caregivers under 65 years of age had more visits due to hypertensive diseases than controls of the same age with an adjusted incidence rate ratio of 1.22 (95% confidence interval 1.04–1.45). Caregivers 65 years or older had fewer visits due to cerebrovascular diseases (0.90, 0.82–0.98) and heart failure (0.88, 0.81–0.95) than their controls. There were no differences in other major CVD groups, i.e. ischaemic heart diseases, peripheral artery diseases, or arrhythmias.

Conclusions

This research enhances our understanding of CVD-related healthcare visits and the occurrence of specific CVDs among younger and older family caregivers. A better understanding of morbidity enables proactive steps to protect family caregivers’ health before critical situations arise.

Key messages

• High-intensity family caregivers did not differ significantly from controls in the number of specialised healthcare visits for cardiovascular disease.

• Family caregivers <65 years of age had more specialised healthcare visits than controls for hypertensive diseases, while those ≥65 years had fewer visits for cerebrovascular diseases and heart failure.