My family member's health and my mental health: A longitudinal matched cohort study

The biobehavioral family model posits that an individual's biobehavioral reactivity is influenced by their family's health. This study examined how one's mental health responds to a serious injury or illness to his or her close relative or family member using longitudinal cohort data of Australian adults sourced from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. We employed a propensity score matching-difference in differences (PSM-DiD) identification approach to resolve selection bias (both observable and unobservable). We found that those whose close relative or family member suffered any serious injury or illness (exposed group) had significantly lower mental health scores and had higher odds of being time stressed compared to the unexposed group. The mental health effects were more pronounced among females and those with low social capital, while males were more time stressed. Further analyses revealed that while the mental health effects set in after two years post-onset of the injury or illness, time stress starts contemporaneously and persists through to the sixth-year post-injury or illness. The implications of these findings are two-fold: 1) the burden of an illness goes beyond the affected person, hence the need to consider potential spillover effects, including health losses to close family members, when evaluating the impact of illness. 2) Social support packages designed to improve a person's health recovery post-injury or illness should account for the potential unintended health losses to close relatives, as ignoring these spillover impacts could lead to sub-optimal outcomes for families and society.