Informal Caregivers at Work - Phase 2

Overview

Mental health problems are rising among children and adolescents. This may not only impact the child's level of daily functioning but also close family members. Informal caregiving is defined as unpaid care for a sick, disabled, or other closely related person. Providing long-term informal care has been associated with detrimental stress-related outcomes, and being simultaneously active in the labor market has been highlighted as an increased burden for the caregiver. Workplaces are poorly suited for dealing with private stressors despite their potential negative consequences for the caregiver's job status and health. There is a need for improving understanding of how long-term informal caregiving impacts job and health outcomes, as well as for measures minimizing potential negative consequences among at-risk occupational groups.

This Danish nationwide observational cohort study examines the associations between employees being a primary informal caregiver for a child or adolescent with mental health problems and the employees' occupational and health outcomes. In addition, we seek to identify modifying psychosocial risk factors at work as well as at-risk occupational groups. The study relies on pre-existing longitudinal data extracted from Danish national registers, including highly reliable information on occupational status, birth information, residence, public transfer payments, income, psychiatric treatment and services, treatment for substance abuse, psychotropic prescription drugs redeemed, as well as background information. In Denmark, all citizens are assigned with a unique identification number enabling merging of national register data included. Caregiver-child relationships are established based on merging of data from birth and household registers. In this study, register data are further merged with information on psychosocial work environment based on national survey data. All data are located at Statistics Denmark, and accessed and analyzed via a logged, secured platform, The Danish Occupational Cohort (DOC\*X) (www.DOC-X.dk). Exposed employees are compared to a reference group of employees without mental health problems at the familiy level matched according to age group, gender (female/male), and socio-occupational status.