The impact of foreign caregiving on depression among older people in Taiwan

This article is a report of a study of predicting the factors that influence depression in the older people in Taiwan. Background. In 1991, Taiwan opened the labour market to foreign caregivers for the older people who needed long-term care. With the differences in language, culture and lifestyle between foreign caregivers and older people in Taiwan, it was hypothesized that the older people would not be able to relate to them, and therefore become depressed. Methods. The data were collected from 116 Taiwanese older people from July to September, 2005. Path analysis using multiple regression analyses was conducted to estimate the direct and indirect effects of caregiving communication, activities of daily living, income and social support on depression among older people in Taiwan. To evaluate the hypotheses for this research, bi-variate linear regression and multiple regression analyses were used. Results/findings. The results indicated that the level of activities of daily living (β=-0·201, P=0·010), care-giving communication (β=-0·272, P=0·002) income (β=-0·305, P=0·000) and social support (β=-0·276, P=0·002) were the predictors of depression in older people in Taiwan. Social support was a mediating factor for caregiving communication and depression. Furthermore, foreign caregiver care was not correlated with depression among older people in Taiwan. Conclusions. The findings influence the public awareness of depression in older people, and provide the foundational information to influence the policy makers of Taiwan to evaluate the foreign caregiver policy.