While caring for an aging senior can be rewarding, many Canadian caregivers are struggling to cope with the stress, new research finds.

Two new related studies from the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that one in six people -- 16 per cent --providing informal care to seniors is experiencing some kind of distress.

Those caring for a senior with dementia are most at risk.

The two CIHI studies looked at more than 130,000 seniors who received publicly-funded long-term home care in 2007–2008. Virtually all of these seniors (98 per cent) also relied on an informal caregiver, such as a spouse, adult children or friends.

The informal caregivers often helped out with the senior's daily living activities, such as shopping, transportation and medication management to bathing, dressing and feeding.

The researchers found:

• Almost 75 per cent of aging seniors who were married received informal care from a spouse.
• Almost 75 per cent of those who were not married (widowed, divorced or single) received care from an adult child.

But the stresses of the 24-hour a day caregiver job can mount – particularly for spouses, who often have difficulty coping with their role as caregiver.

• About 25 per cent of spouses providing care to a spouse reported distress, the study found.
• Spouses were twice as likely to experience distress as other family members, such as adult children who cared for parents.

"It isn't unusual for spouses to experience distress when providing informal care to their partner. This can likely be attributed to the 24-hour nature of their role, a potential lack of understanding of the changes in their spouse's behaviour that are a result of the disease process and the fact that they may be seniors themselves," Kimberly Peterson, Vice President of Client Services with the Champlain Community Care Access Centre, said in a news release.

Caring for a senior with cognition problems, such as forgetfulness or confusion, increased the risk of distress among the caregiver by three times, compared to those caring for seniors without these problems.

The study also found the odds of having a distressed caregiver were nearly two to one for home care clients with symptoms of depression. Behaviours such as resisting care, conflict with family and friends, and socially inappropriate conduct were also significantly associated with caregiver distress.

Nancy White, Manager of Home and Continuing Care Development at CIHI, notes that many seniors want to stay in their own homes as they get older. She says that the good news from the study is that most informal caregivers do appear to be coping well.

"It is important to identify caregivers who are at risk of burnout, which can result in the senior being institutionalized," she noted.

Among seniors with dementia, the study found that marital status was an important factor in determining whether a senior with low impairment was newly admitted to a care facility rather than at home with home care. The odds of being institutionalized were nearly double for those who were not married, compared to those who were married.

The odds of a senior with mild dementia being placed in residential care were seven times more likely if the senior had a tendency to wander.