Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health/Functioning, Missouri, 1999-2002 (ICPSR 36349)
The Black Rural and Urban Caregivers Mental Health/Functioning data collection includes survey data collected in 2000-2002 from African American females age 65 and older, who provide unpaid care for older African American adults in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and seven rural Missouri counties (Butler, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Scott, and Stoddard).
Because of inadequate recruitment knowledge about rural African American caregivers and persistent reports of challenges when involving African Americans elders in research, this study focused on the involvement of African American rural elders and recruitment of their female informal caregivers in a study of caregivers' well-being and service use. African Americans comprise the largest group of ethnic and racial minority elders aged 65 and older in the U.S. population thus making up one half of all ethnic and racial minority elders. Numerical changes in population size and increasing longevity of older African Americans direct attention to African American informal female caregivers- persons most likely to assist African American elderly with daily living tasks, personal needs, and long-term care. More disabled and chronically ill African American elders portend continuing need from informal or unpaid caregivers for dependent care.
There are two datasets associated with this study, a public-use (da36349-0001) and restricted-use (da36349-0002) version of the same survey data. Both data files contain 521 cases and 1438 variables. However, the restricted file contains continuous as opposed to categorical values for age variables rounded to the nearest whole number.