The influence of spirituality on caregiver burden and quality of life in older adult informal caregivers.

Background: Caregiver burden (CB) reduces quality of life (QOL) and causes poor health outcomes. Spirituality impacts this relationship.

Aims: To determine prevalence of CB and investigate relationships among CB, spirituality, and QOL in older U.S. adult informal caregivers (n = 754).

Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive secondary analysis of data from the 2020 Health and Retirement Study using GLM and SEM.

Results: Caregiver mean age was 65.93 (SD=8.37). Caregivers were primarily female (n = 456, 54.0%), White (n = 500, 79.5%), and married (n = 469, 65.3%). Most caregivers had moderate CB (n = 369, 49.8%). Black caregivers who were spiritual (p=.031) and caregivers with a high school diploma/GED who were spiritual (p=.021) had lower CB. Lower CB was correlated with higher QOL (p=< 0.001). SEM depicting an influencing effect of spirituality revealed good model fit (NFI=0.988; IFI=0.993; TLI=0.983; PCFI=0.397, RMSEA=0.043; χ=9.577, p=.048, DF=4) CONCLUSIONS: Fostering spirituality in older adult caregivers could reduce CB and improve QOL.