Financial Strain, Mental Health, and Sleep Disruption Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Family Caregivers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults and their caregivers reported reduced autonomy and disruptions in medical care and community-based services such as adult day centers, and these disruptions likely had the greatest impact on caregivers from health disparity populations. We utilize data on adult child caregivers to the oldest-old from two complementary datasets, the Hispanic Establish Population for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly Caregiver Supplement (HEPESE CG, 2021) and the National Health and Aging Trends COVID-19 Family Members and Friends Dataset (NHATS FF, 2020–2021). We identify the relationship between financial strain and both mental well-being and sleep health for non-Hispanic White (NH White, n = 198), non-Hispanic Black (NH Black, n = 44), and Mexican American (n = 66) caregivers. Most caregivers reported frequent loneliness, depression, and emotional strain during the pandemic. Caregiving-related financial strain was significantly related to mental health and sleep health for Mexican American caregivers and to emotional strain for NH White caregivers. General financial strain due to the pandemic was related to changes in sleep patterns for both NH Black and Mexican American caregivers. ADL assistance, co-residence, and memory care were related to poorer outcomes for NH White caregivers while co-residence was associated with better outcomes for Mexican American caregivers. Taken together, this work provides valuable insight into the impacts of financial strain for adult child caregivers to the oldest-old during public health shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic.