Abstract
Many rural residents require care as they age, but the stress associated with providing care to dependent elders may be exacerbated in nonmetropolitan areas due to the lack of formal services. To better understand residential variation in caregiver outcomes, a random-digit telephone survey was conducted in 2004 with 219 metropolitan, 77 micropolitan, and 104 nonmetropolitan West Virginia caregivers. Residential differences were not detected for caregiver well-being outcomes of burden and depressive symptomatology. However, nonmetropolitan caregivers reported more medical conditions than caregivers in other residential categories. Taken together, findings of this study do not support the notion that rural residence always places caregivers at risk for negative outcomes.
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