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Carolyn C. Cannuscio, ScD, Camara Jones, MD, DrPH, Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH, Lisa Berkman, PhD and Eric Rimm, ScD

Carolyn C. Cannuscio, Camara Jones, Ichiro Kawachi, and Lisa Berkman are with the Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. Carolyn C. Cannuscio is also with the Epidemiology Department, Merck Research Laboratories, Blue Bell, Pa. Camara Jones, Graham A. Colditz, and Eric Rimm are with the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. Camara Jones is also with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga. Graham A. Colditz and Eric Rimm are also with Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. Eric Rimm is also with the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Eric Rimm, ScD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (e-mail: eric.rimm{at}channing.harvard.edu).

0bjectives. This study examined the association between caregiving for disabled or ill family members, estimated to occur in more than 22 million US households, and change in mental health.

Methods. We assessed 4-year change in mental health among 37 742 Nurses’ Health Study participants with the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36.

Results. Women who provided 36 or more weekly hours of care to a disabled spouse were almost 6 times more likely than noncaregivers to experience depressive or anxious symptoms (multivariate odds ratio [OR] = 5.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.8, 8.3). Caring for a disabled or ill parent ( 36 weekly hours) was associated with a less dramatic elevation in depressive or anxious symptoms (multivariate OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 0.9, 4.3).

Conclusions. In this population, caregiving was associated with increased risk of depressive or anxious symptoms.

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