{"doi":"10.1016/j.apmr.2025.06.020","title":"Mental and Physical Well-Being of Informal Stroke Caregivers Compared With Noncaregiver Family and Friends","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: To compare physical/mental health in caregivers and noncaregiver family/friends of stroke survivors within a population-based study. DESIGN: Study is a cohort study design with data from medical records and interviews. SETTING: Population-based stroke study in south Texas. PARTICIPANTS: Stroke survivors and their informal caregivers and noncaregiver family and friends. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Physical/mental health measures included Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8; range, 0-24; higher→worse); Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-10 physical (range, 16.2-67.7) and mental health (range, 21.2-67.6) summary scores (higher→better) at 90 days poststroke. RESULTS: Compared with noncaregivers (n=360), caregivers (n=320) had lower socioeconomic status, were more likely women, Mexican American, offspring rather than spouse of care recipient, and to reside with a stroke survivor. Median PHQ-8 scores were worse in caregivers (median=4; IQR, 1-8, mild) than noncaregivers (median=2; IQR, 0-5; no depression). Physical (median=47.7; IQR, 39.8-54.1; median=50.8; IQR, 44.9-57.7) and mental health (median=45.8; IQR, 41.1-50.8; median=50.8; IQR, 45.8-56.0) scores were good to very good in caregivers and noncaregivers, respectively. Caregivers had greater depression symptoms (β=1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.5-2.5) and worse physical (β=-2.2; 95% CI, -4.0 to -0.4) and mental health (β=-3.2; 95% CI, -5.1 to -1.4) than noncaregivers. CONCLUSIONS: Physical/mental health in caregivers has rarely been compared with those not in the caregiving role. In this study, which controlled for the effect of having a family member or friend with stroke, caregivers had worse physical/mental health than noncaregivers, suggesting that caregiver interventions may improve well-being.","journal":"Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation","year":2025,"id":570697,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7061,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":421766,"name":"Linda C. Gallo","orcid":"0000-0002-3678-5888","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250646,"name":"Janet Prvu Bettger","orcid":"0000-0001-9708-8413","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":917787,"name":"Madeline Kwicklis","orcid":"0000-0003-1720-1186","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":961980,"name":"Elizabeth M Almendarez","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369345,"name":"Erin Case","orcid":"0000-0002-4198-454X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":437935,"name":"Melinda A. Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-7550-2959","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366550,"name":"Lewis B. Morgenstern","orcid":"0000-0002-5787-592X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":74974,"name":"Lynda D. Lisabeth","orcid":"0000-0001-5539-5933","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":26,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:11.713851Z","pmid":"40685006","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}