Overall, depression and painful condition were the two leading long-term conditions, both before and after accounting for age differences.
Unpaid carers had significantly higher rates of multimorbidity than non-carers* across NPT (rate ratio 1.2, 95% CI 1.1-1.4), Swansea (1.3, 1.1-1.6) and Denbighshire (1.4, 1.1-1.7). Although multimorbidity rates were slightly higher in LA-identified unpaid carers, than GP-identified unpaid carers, the difference was not statistically significant (Figure 4).
A higher rate of multimorbidity in unpaid carers than non-carers* is consistent with other research (6).
These higher rates of multimorbidity indicate that unpaid carers have poorer health than non-carers*.
*Note: “non-carers” refers to an age, sex and geographical area matched population of individuals who were not identified in the unpaid carer population. For further details, see methodology doc.
(6) Huang F, Song J, Davies AR, Anderson C, Bentley L, Carter B, et al. Unpaid carers in Wales: The creation of an e-cohort to understand long-term health conditions amongst unpaid carers in Wales Suggested Citation Acknowledgements. 2021 [cited 2022 Sep 1]; Available from: nationalarchives.gov.uk