Table 1 Gender differences in sociodemographic characteristics, subjective burden, caregiving role and social support

Sociodemographic characteristics

 Age

78.1 (6.9)

76.7 (6.7)

81.7 (6.4)

 < 0.001

Marital status

 Married

192 (85.7%)

135 (82.8%)

57 (93.4%)

0.043

 Single/Divorced/Widow

32 (14.3%)

28 (17.2%)

4 (6.6%)

Familiar relationship

 Spousal

160 (71.4%)

109 (66.9%)

51 (83.6%)

0.014

 Ancestor/Descendant/Other

64 (28.6%)

54 (33.1%)

10 (16.4%)

Educational level

 Primary or less (≤ 12 years)

156 (69.6%)

118 (72.4%)

38 (62.3%)

0.143

 Secondary or above (> 12 years)

68 (30.4%)

45 (27.6%)

23 (37.7%)

Employment status

 Unpaid domestic work

78 (34.8%)

77 (47.2%)

1 (1.6%)

 < 0.001

 Employed/Unemployed/ Retired

146 (65.2%)

86 (52.8%)

60 (98.4%)

Subjective burden

 Burden (Caregiver Strain Index), (yes)

102 (46.8%)

79 (50.0%)

23 (38.3%)

0.123

 Anxiety (Goldberg), (yes)

118 (54.1%)

96 (60.8%)

22 (36.7%)

0.001

 Depression (Yesavage) (yes)

28 (12.9%)

25(15.8%)

3 (5.0%)

0.033

Caregiving role

 Living conditions

  Living with care recipient only, (yes)

148 (66.1%)

104 (63.8%)

44 (72.1%)

0.241

  Household size

2 (2–3)

2.7 (1.5)

2.3 (0.7)

0.158

 Caregiving conditions

  Experience as a caregiver, (years)

6 (3–10)

9.2 (9.9)

8.2 (8.0)

0.730

  Family function (Family Apgar), (dysfunctional)

55 (25.2%)

39 (24.7%)

16 (26.7%)

0.763

Social support

 Dependency Law

  Level recognized by government, (yes)

65 (29.0%)

50 (30.7%)

15 (24.6%)

0.372

  Formal Support, (yes)

82 (36.6%)

56 (34.4%)

26 (42.6%)

0.253

  Domestic helper, (yes)

72 (32.1%)

48 (29.5%)

24 (39.3%)

0.158

  Domestic helper, (hours per week) (n = 72)

9.26 (28.4)

6.38 (20.3)

16.98 (5.4)

0.013