Mapping the Caregiver Experience: Predicting Dimensions of Caregiver Strain Through Task-Based Profiles

<b>Objective:</b> Family caregiving is a prevalent, diverse, and often challenging experience. We develop caregiving activity profiles to better understand how sets of care-tasks contribute to various aspects of strain.<b>Methods:</b> Using diary data from a survey of 213 family caregivers in the U.S., we perform latent class analysis to group commonly occurring care-related tasks into activity profiles. We then use these classifications to predict physical, financial, and emotional strain.<b>Main Findings:</b> We identified 4 unique activity profiles based on a set of 36 daily caregiving activities performed. Activity profiles varied significantly across the three analyzed strain dimensions.<b>Conclusion:</b> Activity profiles present opportunities to better understand how caregiving tasks are related to specific types kinds of caregiving strain.