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Table 1 Distribution of characteristics among caregivers and none-caregivers

From: Health and wellbeing in informal caregivers and non-caregivers: a comparative cross-sectional study of the Swedish general population

  

Caregivers (N = 9343)

Non-caregivers (N = 76112)

Total

Sex

Male

41.0**

46.1**

45.5

Female

59.0**

53.9**

54.5

Age

Mean (SD)

54.5 (14.8)**

49.2 (17.8)**

49.8 (17.5)

Education

Compulsory school

47.0**

43.5**

43.9

Secondary school or equal

32.6**

34.3**

34.1

University

20.4**

22.2**

22.0

Financial status

No problems

83.4**

85.7**

85.4

Have problems

16.6**

14.3**

14.6

Emotional social support

No

12.7**

10.5**

10.7

Yes

87.3**

89.5**

89.23

Instrumental social support

No

7.7**

4.5**

4.9

Yes

92.3**

95.5**

95.1

Long-term illness

No

57.1**

63.6**

62.8

Yes

42.9**

36.4**

37.2

Self-rated health

Poor or very poor

7.3**

5.8**

5.9

Neither good nor poor

27.3**

22.5**

23.0

Good or very good

65.5**

71.7**

71.1

Amount of recent days with poor health or without work capacity

Days with poor physical health, mean (SD)

7.29 (9.4)**

6.41 (9.4)**

6.68 (9,6)

Days with poor mental health, mean (SD)

6.25 (9.0)**

5.27 (8.3)**

5.46 (8.5)

Days without work capacity, mean (SD)

4.76 (8.9)**

4.12 (8.4)**

4.36 (8.6)

Psychological wellbeing

GHQ12a MD, Mean (SD)

9, 10.1 (5.3)**

8, 9.5 (4.8)**

8, 9.5 (4.9)

Good psychological wellbeingb

78.2**

82.4**

81.9

Poor psychological wellbeingb

21.8**

17.6**

18.1

  1. Figures as percentages if not stated otherwise. Pearson Chi-Square test was used for distributions and Mann–Whitney U test was used for median
  2. **P ≤ 0.01
  3. aGeneral Health Questionnaire (GHQ12) in index-form, ranging from 0 to 36, where a higher score indicate lower psychological wellbeing
  4. bGHQ12 was dichotomized, with cut-off score: 12, into good psychological wellbeing and poor psychological wellbeing