Josh, SnodgrassHouston, JanaeJanae, HoustonAlicia, DelouizeJosh, Snodgrass2020-08-112020-08-112020https://hdl.handle.net/1794/25470Project files are comprised of 1 page pdf and presentation recording in mp4 format.Health Disparities faced by female caregivers when caring for older adults and children in middle-income countries JANAE H. HOUSTON1, ALICIA M. DELOUIZE1, J. JOSH SNODGRASS1 1Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon; 2World Health Organization (Switzerland); 3Research Centre for Generational Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle (Australia) As middle-income populations age there has been a push to improve health in this demographic because they account for much of the world’s population. The relationship between caregiving and poor health requires further investigation. We analyzed data of female caregivers between 18-50 years old (N = 15975) responsible for children or older adults in Ghana, South Africa, Mexico, Russia, and India. We tested the following hypotheses; 1) Caregiving will be associated with overall poorer health in all 5 countries; 2) difficulties associated with caregiving would be affiliated with overall worse self-reported health due to less sustainable income, lived in rural areas, and were not married. Between 4.0 and 14.3 percent of the populations in each country are caregivers, with older caregivers in our sample often caring for children. Caregiving was associated with poor health in all countries except Mexico (where caregiving was not associated with health) and Russia (where caregiving was positively associated with health; t’s = -1.74 to 1.90, p’s = .03 to .26), and reported difficulties associated with caregiving were associated with poor health in caregivers in Ghana, India, and Russia (β’s = .09 to .27, p’s = < .001 to .45). It was shown that low income status was a significant factors associated with poorer health in caregivers across all nations except Ghana (β’s = -0.26 to -0.06, p’s = .01 to .03). Since there are differences in the relationship between caregiver difficulties and health across nations, investigating what leads to these differences could improve outcomes for this population globally. Funding Citation: NIH NIA Interagency Agreement YA1323-08-CN-0020; NIH R01-AG034479; WHO; Ministry of Health in Mexico; Shanghai CDC in China; NDH in South Africa; University of Ghana Medical School; USAID; University of Oregon Bray Fellowship.video/mp4application/pdfen-USCreative Commons CC0CaregivingMiddle-income countriesHealth disparitiesPresentation