The impacts of caregiving intensity on informal caregivers in Malaysia: findings from a national survey

Table 1 Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of caregivers, stratified by care intensity level (N = 604)

Characteristic	Count, n (Unweighted)	Estimated population, N (Weighted)	Percentage (%)	Level of caregiving intensity				p-value
				1–19 h per week		20 and more hours per week
				n	weighted %	n	weighted %
Sex
Male	232	412,091	37.8	154	37.0	78	38.9	0.722
Female	372	679,506	62.2	224	63.0	148	61.1
Ethnicity
Malay^a	409	611,978	56.1	258	58.7	151	51.9	0.317
Non-Malay	195	479,619	43.9	120	41.3	75	48.1
Age (years)
18–34	133	357,802	32.8	87	30.5	46	36.3	0.424
35–59	318	519,676	47.6	198	50.9	120	42.5
60+	153	214,119	19.6	93	18.6	60	21.2
Educational level:
No formal	32	70,346	6.4	23	7.4	9	5.0	0.422
Primary	135	188,625	17.3	76	14.3	59	21.9
Secondary	309	579,614	53.1	199	53.7	110	52.2
Tertiary	128	253,012	23.2	80	24.6	48	20.9
Marital status
Married	431	747,380	68.5	276	68.3	155	68.8	0.939
Not married (divorced, separated or never married)	173	344,217	31.5	102	31.7	71	31.2
Employment status:
Active	305	590,602	54.1	189	48.4	116	63.0	0.018
Inactive	299	500,995	45.9	189	51.6	110	37.0
Income^b
Low	292	500,496	45.9	180	45.0	112	47.2	0.351
Middle	231	422,869	38.7	141	37.0	90	41.5
High	81	168,232	15.4	57	18.0	24	11.3
Location
Urban	360	799,263	73.2	228	74.8	132	70.7	0.413
Rural	244	292,334	26.8	150	25.2	94	29.3

^a Malay includes Orang Asli
^b Low income (comprised of those from quintile one and two), Middle income (comprised of those from quintile three and four), High income (comprised of those from the highest quintile)

ISSN: 1472-6963