Family caregivers' experience with healthcare and social care professionals and their participation in health checkups: A cross sectional study in Japan

Background: For family caregivers, who are generally regarded as a vulnerable population, having regular checkups is a desirable health behavior. This study examined family caregivers' habit of having regular checkups prior to becoming involved with professionals who care for patients, and whether they had had recent checkups. We then examined the association between family caregivers' experience with professionals and their participation in checkups after adjusting for the past habit. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional survey in Japan between November and December 2020. We recruited family caregivers who were aged 40–74 years and caring for community-dwelling adult patients. The outcome variable was whether family caregivers had undergone any health checkups since April 2019. We assessed family caregivers' experience using the Japanese version of the Caregivers' Experience Instrument (J-IEXPAC CAREGIVERS). Results: Of the 1091 recruited family caregivers, 629 were included in the analysis. Of these, 358 had previously undergone regular checkups, and 158 had no checkups or selected the option “unknown.” Outcome rates in each group were 74.6% and 43.0%, respectively, and 62.0% for all 629 caregivers. Multivariate modified Poisson regression analysis revealed that among the J-IEXPAC CAREGIVERS scores, only the domain score for attention for the caregiver was significantly associated with family caregivers' participation in checkups (adjusted prevalence ratio per 1 SD increase = 1.07; 95% CI 1.01–1.14). Conclusions: Among family caregivers' experience with professionals, the factor that focused on caregivers themselves was significantly associated with their participation in checkups. This finding underscores the significance of caregiver-focused care.