DEI/Health Equity
1
Date of Presentation
5-2-2024 12:00 AM
College
Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine
Poster Abstract
In this study, caregiver burden measures the psychosocial strain a caregiver experiences as a result of caring for a person with autism. In addition, this study focuses on the effect of socioeconomic status on caregiver burden. A previous study found an association between lower primary caregiver education level and more sleep problems for children with autism3. Thus, the finding focuses on the child with autism as opposed to the caregiver burden. Other studies focus on elements that affect caregiver burden such as sleep quality, mental health, and cultural aspects. If it is known that socioeconomic status significantly affects caregiver burden, resources can be diverted to support those caregivers in an equitable manner. This is crucial due to the high value of services caregivers provide in the United States ($470 billion in 2013)1. Using scores from caregiver inventory forms from the Regional Integrated Special Needs Center in New Jersey and the zip codes retrieved from patient data, we were able to find median income from ZIP codes through census.gov. Then, using linear regression, we did not find a significant association between average total score from caregiver inventory forms and average median income. Interestingly, this may point to an overestimate of quality of life from caregivers in spite of low SES as seen in one study6. It may also be because of other confounding factors such as mental health, gender, and sleep quality on the caregivers. This study opens the door to more research to be done on socioeconomic status’ effects such as controlling for extraneous variables as well as using other methods to measure SES such as education level of caregivers.
Keywords
caregiver burden, socioeconomic status, autism, Autistic Disorder, median income, zip code, special needs, Income, Socioeconomic Factors, Geographic Factors, Developmental Disabilities, Regional Integrated Special Needs Center, RISN, New Jersey
Disciplines
Health and Medical Administration | Medical Humanities | Medicine and Health | Medicine and Health Sciences | Nervous System Diseases | Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms | Primary Care | Psychiatric and Mental Health | Psychiatry | Psychological Phenomena and Processes | Social Psychology and Interaction
Document Type
Poster
DOI
0.31986/issn.2689-0690_rdw.stratford_research_day.176_2024
Included in
Health and Medical Administration Commons, Medical Humanities Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Nervous System Diseases Commons, Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Commons, Primary Care Commons, Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons, Psychiatry Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
Relationship Between Caregiver Burden and Socioeconomic Status
In this study, caregiver burden measures the psychosocial strain a caregiver experiences as a result of caring for a person with autism. In addition, this study focuses on the effect of socioeconomic status on caregiver burden. A previous study found an association between lower primary caregiver education level and more sleep problems for children with autism3. Thus, the finding focuses on the child with autism as opposed to the caregiver burden. Other studies focus on elements that affect caregiver burden such as sleep quality, mental health, and cultural aspects. If it is known that socioeconomic status significantly affects caregiver burden, resources can be diverted to support those caregivers in an equitable manner. This is crucial due to the high value of services caregivers provide in the United States ($470 billion in 2013)1. Using scores from caregiver inventory forms from the Regional Integrated Special Needs Center in New Jersey and the zip codes retrieved from patient data, we were able to find median income from ZIP codes through census.gov. Then, using linear regression, we did not find a significant association between average total score from caregiver inventory forms and average median income. Interestingly, this may point to an overestimate of quality of life from caregivers in spite of low SES as seen in one study6. It may also be because of other confounding factors such as mental health, gender, and sleep quality on the caregivers. This study opens the door to more research to be done on socioeconomic status’ effects such as controlling for extraneous variables as well as using other methods to measure SES such as education level of caregivers.