Family caregivers’ health capability: Contribution of, and relations between its dimensions

Background. Being family caregiver poses certain risks for physical, mental and social health. The health capability paradigm (Ruger, 2010) explores the capacity to achieve one’s optimal health. Family caregivers’ health capability partly consists of 8 dimensions: physical and psychological functioning, lifestyle value, self-efficacy, family support, social capital, socio-economic conditions and access to health services. Which relations exist between these dimensions, and which ones contribute the most to health capability?
Methods. Home-based structured interviews were led among 62 family caregivers living in Luxembourg 2 years after their relatives’ stroke. Twenty items measured the 8 dimensions of health capability. Using a Bayesian approach, a structural equation modelling was applied.
Findings. Socio-economic conditions were positively correlated with all the other dimensions. Family caregivers’ fatigue and feeling abandoned by their families impeded their health capability the most.
Discussion. Enhancing family caregivers’ well-being involves finding interventions relieving them physically and fostering family networking around the ill, giving priority to the socially disadvantaged.