The Vulnerability of Older Informal Caregivers with Care Needs: Significance of Multidimensional Frailty.

To improve our understanding of older informal caregivers' (ICs) health, this paper aimed to compare multidimensional frailty and sociodemographic and economic characteristics between (subgroups of) older ICs and non-caregivers. Using data originating from the Belgian Ageing studies ( Among all respondents, 14.3% were ICs reporting care needs themselves. Informal and non-caregivers with care needs, relative to those without, more often only (partially) completed primary education, were significantly older, more likely to be female and widowed, found it more difficult to make ends meet, and reported higher levels of frailty in each domain. Moreover, environmental and psychological frailty were associated with an increase in the likelihood of reporting need of assistance among older non-caregivers and ICs, respectively. This study revealed a particular vulnerable subpopulation of older ICs with care needs. It is essential for clinicians to be observant for unrecognized frailty and care needs in older ICs and to develop targeted intervention and prevention strategies.