Support for family caregivers of older people during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to identify the type of support re-ceived by family caregivers of older people during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the associ-ated socioeconomic health and care-related fac-tors. Data from CUIDA-COVID study, an online questionnaire conducted from august to november 2020 (n = 4,820) were used. Three multiple models were built, with the following outcome: contracted support, family support, and lack of support. Inde-pendent variables related to socioeconomic, health, and care aspects were converted into dichotomous categories. Family support was the most common (48.6%), followed by lack of support (38.3%), and contracted support (13.1%). No significant as-sociations were observed between race/skin color, poverty status, chronic back pain and negative mood with any type of support. Factors strongly associated (adjustedPR > 2.0) with contracted support were: the non-sharp decrease in income during the pandemic; non-dedication to full-time care; self-rated good/excellent health; and the high degree of dependence of the older individual. For family support, the main associations were: the non-marked increase in the effort to care during the pandemic, the non-dedication to full-time care and the sharp decrease in income during the pan-demic. The characteristics associated with lack of support were: living with the older person; dedica-tion to full-time care; living in households with 1 or 2 people; and report a sharp increase in effort to care during the pandemic. Overall, caregivers with contracted support had the best socioeconomic, care and health conditions. Lack of support was related to worse health and care conditions, while family support was related to worse socioeconomic conditions.