The Health of Paid Caregivers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Spanish Population — Oak Academic Publishing
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The Health of Paid Caregivers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Spanish Population
Research Group of Psychological Styles, Gender and Health (EPSY), Red Hygeia (Health & Gender International Alliance), Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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Department of Personality and Psychological Assessment and Treatment, Red Hygeia (Health & Gender International Alliance), University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
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Research Group of Psychological Styles, Gender and Health (EPSY), Red Hygeia (Health & Gender International Alliance), Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
1 Research Group of Psychological Styles, Gender and Health (EPSY), Red Hygeia (Health & Gender International Alliance), Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2 Department of Personality and Psychological Assessment and Treatment, Red Hygeia (Health & Gender International Alliance), University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
3 Research Group of Psychological Styles, Gender and Health (EPSY), Red Hygeia (Health & Gender International Alliance), Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
In countries with a welfare system, such as Spain, paid caregiving is an important profession and investi gating the health of people who care for the health of others is becoming an issue of increasing interest. This paper reports on a study assessing the health of people who care for the health of others. It investi gates whether caregiving jobs carry with them a higher risk of psychological and physical health problems than other unrelated occupations, and it examines whether risk profiles differ by sex and educational level. A descriptive correlational approach and a cross-sectional design w ere used. The sample included 330 participants. Half of the participants worked as caregivers, and the other half worked in professions unre lated to caregiving services. The results indicate that paid caregivers have poorer health than their matched counterparts. The variable of caregiving explains this difference better than sex or educational level and professional category.
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