Table 32 provides information about the caring roles of research participants and how this varied over time, using data from the ‘About your caring role’ questionnaire completed at baseline and at the 12-week and 24-week follow-ups. This information was not collected from clinical participants.

TABLE 32

Summary of the caring role of research participants

The majority of participants had been in caring roles for > 1 year and had an average of 45 hours’ predominantly face-to-face contact with the person they were supporting each week. Most participants reported that caring for their relatives had not affected their employment status or performance, either because they had not been in paid employment prior to their caring role or because they were still performing the same work. A small number of participants at each assessment point reported either stopping work or reducing their hours because of their caring role.