Primary caregivers at home: relationship between the older Americans resources and services assessed functional levels of the caregiver and care receiver spouse dyad

The Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire (OMFAQ) was administered to 20 spouse dyads. In this study, one spouse was the primary informal caregiver for the other impaired spouse who was receiving home health care services. The data were subjected to descriptive and correlation analyses to address two questions: (a) is there a relationship between the caregivers' and care receivers' functional status, and (b) is the caregiver even more impaired than the care receiver in any of the five dimensions measured by the OMFAQ? The correlation matrix examining the relationship between the caregivers' and care receivers' assessment scores suggested (a) a positive relationship between caregivers' and care receivers' social resources, (b) a positive relationship between caregivers' mental health and care receivers' social resources, and (c) no relationship between caregiver functional status and care receiver indices of illness. A comparison of the mean scores suggested that the caregiver was more impaired than the care receiver only in the area of social resources.