Key result
Providing informal care showed no overall difference in cardiovascular disease incidence compared to non-carers, although the most intense caregiving group had higher CVD incidence.
Why the study?
Providing informal care is a known stressful activity, but it remains unclear whether informal caregiving is associated with cardiovascular disease risk.
Does providing informal care increase the incidence of cardiovascular disease compared to non-carers?
Systematic Review
Does providing informal care increase the incidence of cardiovascular disease compared to non-carers?
Providing informal care is generally not associated with increased CVD incidence, though high-intensity caregiving may increase cardiovascular risk.
Intense informal caregiving may raise CVD risk; leaves open overall effects and needs prospective confirmation before guiding screening.
Exposure to chronic stress increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Providing informal care is known to be a stressful activity, but it is not clear whether informal caregiving is associated with CVD risk. This systematic review aimed to summarise and assess the quantitative evidence examining the association between providing informal care to others and CVD incidence in comparison with non-carers. Eligible articles were detected by searching six electronic literature databases (CINAHL, Embase, Global Health, OVID Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science). Two reviewers appraised 1887 abstracts and 34 full-text articles against a set of a priori eligibility criteria to identify articles for inclusion. Quality assessment of included studies was performed using the ROBINS-E risk of bias tool. Nine studies were identified that quantitatively assessed the association between providing informal care and CVD incidence in comparison to not providing informal care. Overall, there was no difference in the incidence of CVD between carers and non-carers across these studies. However, within the subgroup of studies that examined care provision intensity (hours/week) higher CVD incidence was observed for the most intense caregiving group compared to non-carers. One study examined only CVD-related mortality outcomes, observing a reduction in mortality for carers compared to non-carers. More research is required to explore the relationship between informal care and CVD incidence.
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Lambrias et al. (2023) conducted a systematic review in Cardiovascular disease. Providing informal care vs. Not providing informal care was evaluated on Cardiovascular disease incidence. Providing informal care showed no overall difference in cardiovascular disease incidence compared to non-carers, although the most intense caregiving group had higher CVD incidence.
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