Considering the heterogeneity in high-intensity caregiving among informal caregivers, control function model which allows for heterogeneous treatment effects was used.
More emphasis on the former one might further help caregivers control their upsetting thoughts related to caregiving.
Caregivers control access to medical/health services [ 3, 38], so it is very important that they are involved with health interventions for those who are in their care.
A total of 398 schizophrenia caregivers, 158,989 non-caregivers controls and 14,341 caregivers of other conditions were identified via 5EU NHWS across 2010, 2011 and 2013.
In general, informal schizophrenia caregivers exhibited poorer health-related outcomes than non-caregiver controls.
Thus, while caregiver controls showed a normal CAR, the PSD patients did not.
Figure 1 shows salivary cortisol levels of PSD patients and caregiver controls after awakening.
At awakening, cortisol levels of PSD patients and caregiver controls did not differ.
Schizophrenia caregivers also reported lower HRQoL and health utility compared with non-caregiver controls, all p <0.05.
The AUCg, reflecting total cortisol output during the first 45 min after awakening, of PSD patients was also significantly smaller than that of the caregiver controls (PSD patients: 545.2 ± 22.3; caregiver controls: 782.4 ± 49.8; t = 4.61, P < 0.001).
Accordingly, the AUCi, reflecting the increase in cortisol level after awakening, of PSD patients was significantly smaller than that of the caregiver controls (PSD patients: 73.2 ± 21.8; caregiver controls: 311.4 ± 35.9; t = 5.88, P < 0.001).
