Assisted-Transport Caregiving and Its Impact Towards Carer-Employees

Assisted-transport is the most common informal caregiving task and will be in greater demand due to an aging society. One population group that predominantly covers the demands of informal eldercare while working full time in the paid labor force are carer-employees. The developing carer-employee literature addresses: the health risks for carer-employees; employers of carer-employees, and policy/program interventions. Little research focuses on assisted-transport, which impacts health. This study begins to fill the gap by addressing the following objectives: (1) develop a socioeconomic profile of carer-employees performing assisted-transport tasks; (2) identify any gender differences based on the profile, particularly employment and caregiving traits; (3) examine behavioral factors that increase the likelihood of conducting assisted-transport caregiving, and; (4) determine whether carer-employees are more likely to be overwhelmed from assisted-transport caregiving. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to analyze Statistics Canada's General Social Survey Cycle 26: Caregiving dataset (2012). Compared to general carer-employees, assisted-transport carer-employees have higher education, household income, and caregiving hours per week and feel more tired and overwhelmed from caregiving. Gender gaps exist based on socioeconomic and caregiving characteristics. Logit results show that female carer-employees are more likely to perform assisted-transport caregiving and feel overwhelmed. Carer-employees conducting assisted-transport caregiving are more likely to be overwhelmed than those who do not.