Caring for parents with Alzheimer's: comparing perceptions of physical and mental health in the Jewish and Arab sectors in Israel.

This study examines the effects of demographic, ethnic, personal and familial resources on well-being--perceptions of physical and mental health--of children caring for parents with Alzheimer's, comparing Jewish and Arab caregivers. Two groups of 64 Jewish and 50 Arab caregivers were selected from a cognitive diagnostic unit operating in a geriatric rehabilitative hospital in the north of Israel. The theoretical base was family systems and stress theories, using the ABCX model. The results show that ethnicity and parent-child relations were the strongest predictors of physical and especially mental health of these caregivers, followed by employment status of the caregivers and patient's functioning.