Marta Borgi, Antonio d’Amore, Flavia Chiarotti, Angela Ruocco, Elena Capuano, Silvia Vitali, Elena Ortona, Marina Petrini

Long-term caregiving for a non-self-sufficient family member has been associated with high levels of chronic stress, which can pose significant risk to the mental and physical health of family caregivers (FCs). This study explores the impact of psychological stress on mental health outcomes (e.g., symptoms of depression), lifestyle behaviours, and perceived health, with particular attention to gender differences. We focused on two groups of FCs facing high caregiving burdens: those caring for individuals with dementia/Alzheimer’s disease (DA) and those caring for individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism (ASD). Our analysis draws on data collected from 458 FCs (200 DA and 258 ASD), who participated in an online survey assessing both objective and subjective caregiving burden, psychological stress, depressive symptoms and perceived health status. The findings revealed that being female, caring for someone with DA (compared to those caring for people with ASD), and devoting more of caregiving hours per week were significant predictors of higher psychological stress levels. Participants showing the highest levels of stress were also those showing unhealthy lifestyles, more severe depressive symptoms and poorer perceived health. We suggest that the sex and gender-specific differences observed in this study may contribute to health inequalities among FCs. These findings underscore the need for targeted, sex/gender-sensitive interventions to address the unique health challenges faced by FCs. They also provide valuable insights for policymakers to design strategies that better support the well-being of FCs based on their specific needs and caregiving contexts.
Key words. Sex and gender differences, informal caregiver, autism spectrum disorder, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease.