Older Adult Caregivers Benefit From Volunteer and Personal Enrichment Activities More Than Non-Caregiving Peers

Background and Purpose: Informal caregivers provide 80% of long-term care in the US. Research indicates that caregivers tend to be more isolated and in worse health than non-caregiving counterparts (Schulz & Beach, 1999). The purpose of this analysis was to assess whether caregivers who participate in personal enrichment and volunteer activities outside the home were likely to report benefits related to their health, social engagement, and meaning in life.

Methods: Surveys were mailed to a randomly selected sample of older adults (age 50+) who had participated in at least one class or volunteer activity in the last two years as part of the OASIS Institute, a nonprofit organization with centers in 22 cities across the United States. Surveys were distributed by email to those with email addresses (57%, n= 6,840), and by mail to those without (43%, n=5,160). Responses were analyzed in SAS using OLS and logistic regression, and controlling for demographic differences and clustering by location.

Results: The survey had a response rate of 41% (n=5,138). Respondents were representative of OASIS participants nationally; they had a mean age of 71 years, were 80% female, 15% non-White, 13% low-income, and 41% living alone. Respondents were similar to non-responders by gender, income, race, and education; however, respondents were more likely to have been active in OASIS in the last 6 months. Approximately 21% of all respondents (n=975) self-identified as caregivers, with 37% of those providing daily care, and 31% providing care at least once each week. Among respondents who were not active recently (n=1798), nearly 10% (n=169) cited caregiving responsibilities as the primary reason for non-participation. Caregivers were similar to non-caregivers by education, race, and income, but tended to be slightly younger (70.5 years of age vs. 72). Caregivers reported higher perceived benefits from educational and volunteer activities than non-caregivers after controlling for gender, education, race, income and level of engagement (b=0.64, t=3.71, p=.0002). Benefits included participants' perceived health improvement, increased social engagement, better outlook on life, increased desire to continue learning, and attainment of useful skills and knowledge. Findings held when benefits were examined as a summative score of 6 self-report items and when items were analyzed individually.

Conclusions and Implications: While most older adult participants reported some benefit from volunteer and educational activities, caregivers benefited more. At the same time, caregiving responsibilities represented a barrier to participation for some respondents. Although the population in this analysis had higher levels of education and engagement than the general population of older adults, these results support findings elsewhere that suggest that engagement outside the home is important to caregiver wellbeing. Social workers should explore opportunities for clients who are caregivers to engage in personal enrichment and volunteer activities outside the home. Further study is needed to understand how caregiver engagement can be supported and benefits maximized for this vulnerable population.