2026/03/18 by Aileen Chou, Scott R. Beach, Barbara J. Lutz +3 · 1 voice
Medicine · #Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery #Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research #Acute Ischemic Stroke Management
paper · doi:10.1080/10749357.2026.2641749
openalex publication_date 2026/03/18 · openalex created_date 2026/03/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Background Stroke survivors often depend on caregivers for assistance with activities of daily living (ADL), yet it remains unclear which individuals receive more assistance long-term. We examined predictors of the quantity of informal caregiving in the first year following their stroke.Methods Data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (2011–2020, n = 578) was used in this retrospective cohort study of older adults. Individuals with at least 1 formal or informal caregiver who reported an incident stroke were included. Multivariate negative binomial regression analyses identified informal caregiver and stroke survivor characteristics associated with the quantity of informal caregiving received. Regression coefficients were converted to average marginal effect (AME) to describe the predicted number of informal caregiving hours.Results Community-dwelling stroke survivors received a median of 15.2 (IQR, 4.1–47.0) hours/week of informal caregiving from an average of 2.3 (SD 1.4) informal caregivers within one-year of an incident stroke. Stroke survivors who were males, married, had more physical and cognitive impairments received more informal caregiving. Relative to individuals with 0–1 ADL limitations receiving 10 informal care hours/week, on average, those with 5–7 ADL limitations received 2.7 more hours/week (AME: 2.65, 95% CI: 1.47–3.83); p < 0.001). Subgroups of non-White stroke survivors and those with primary caregivers tend to receive more informal care than White stroke survivors and those with shared caregivers, respectively.Conclusion Within this nationally representative dataset, specific stroke survivor demographic and clinical variables were associated with high amounts of informal caregiving which may help inform policy and future interventions to effectively allocate resources and target high-need families.