PMID- 30921333
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20191125
LR  - 20231006
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 14
IP  - 3
DP  - 2019
TI  - Biomedical health profiles of unpaid family carers in an urban population in 
      South Australia.
PG  - e0208434
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0208434 [doi]
LID - e0208434
AB  - OBJECTIVES: To compare the biomedical health profile and morbidity of adult 
      carers with non-carers. METHODS: The North West Adelaide Health Study (NWAHS) is 
      a representative population-based longitudinal biomedical cohort study of 4056 
      participants aged 18 years and over at Stage One. Informal (unpaid) carers were 
      identified in Stage 3 of the project (2008-2010). Risk factors, chronic medical 
      conditions and biomedical, health and demographic characteristics using 
      self-report and blood measured variables were assessed. Data were collected 
      through clinic visits, telephone interviews and self-completed questionnaires. 
      Risk factors included blood pressure, cholesterol/lipids, body mass index (BMI), 
      smoking and alcohol intake. Chronic medical conditions included cardiovascular 
      and respiratory diseases, diabetes, and musculoskeletal conditions. Blood 
      measured variables were routine haematology, biochemistry, Vitamin D, and the 
      inflammatory biomarkers high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP), Tumor 
      Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFalpha) and Interleukin-6 (Il-6). RESULTS: The prevalence of 
      carers aged 40 years and over was 10.7%, n = 191. Carers aged 40 years and over 
      were more likely to assess their health status as fair/poor and report having 
      diabetes, arthritis, anxiety and depression. They also reported insufficient 
      exercise and were found to have higher BMI compared with non-carers. Significant 
      findings from blood measured variables were lower serum Vitamin D and 
      haemoglobin. Male carers had raised diastolic blood pressure, higher blood 
      glucose, lower haemoglobin and albumin levels and slightly elevated levels of the 
      inflammatory biomarkers TNFalpha and hs-CRP. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: This study 
      confirms informal carers had different biomedical profiles to non-carers that 
      included some chronic physical illnesses. It identifies that both female and male 
      carers showed a number of risk factors which need to be considered in future 
      caregiver research, clinical guidelines and policy development regarding carer 
      morbidity.
FAU - Stacey, Anne F
AU  - Stacey AF
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-0887-4824
AD  - Population Research & Outcome Studies, Discipline of Medicine, The University of 
      Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
FAU - Gill, Tiffany K
AU  - Gill TK
AD  - Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 
      Australia.
FAU - Price, Kay
AU  - Price K
AD  - School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South 
      Australia, Australia.
FAU - Taylor, Anne W
AU  - Taylor AW
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-4422-7974
AD  - Population Research & Outcome Studies, Discipline of Medicine, The University of 
      Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Comparative Study
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20190328
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
RN  - 97C5T2UQ7J (Cholesterol)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Alcohol Drinking/*epidemiology
MH  - Blood Pressure
MH  - Body Mass Index
MH  - Caregivers
MH  - Cholesterol/blood
MH  - Employment/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - Female
MH  - Health Status
MH  - Humans
MH  - Longitudinal Studies
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Smoking/*epidemiology
MH  - South Australia/epidemiology
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
MH  - Urban Health
MH  - Urban Population
PMC - PMC6438668
COIS- The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2019/03/29 06:00
MHDA- 2019/11/26 06:00
PMCR- 2019/03/28
CRDT- 2019/03/29 06:00
PHST- 2018/05/01 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2019/03/14 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2019/03/29 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2019/03/29 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2019/11/26 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2019/03/28 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-18-13042 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0208434 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2019 Mar 28;14(3):e0208434. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208434. 
      eCollection 2019.