Ageing and Society

This paper examines how care-giving to adults and/or children and care-receiving is associated with the health and wellbeing of older people aged + in rural South Africa. Data used are from a cross-sectional survey adapted from World Health Organization’s Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) conducted in / in rural South Africa. Bivariate statistics and multivariate logistical regression were used to assess the relationship between care-giving and/or carereceiving with functional disability, quality of life or emotional wellbeing, and selfrated health status, adjusted for socio-demographic factors. Sixty-three per cent of  older people were care-givers to at least one young adult or child;  per cent of older people were care-givers due to HIV-related reasons in young adults;  per cent of participants were care-recipients mainly from adult children, grandchildren and spouse. In logistic regressions adjusting for sex, age, marital status, education, receipt of grants, household headship, household wealth and HIV status, care-giving was statistically significantly associated with good functional ability as measured by ability to perform activities of daily living. This relationship was stronger for older people providing care-giving to adults than to children. In contrast, care-givers were less likely to report good emotional wellbeing; again the relationship was stronger for care-givers to adults than children. Simultaneous care-giving and -receiving was likewise associated with good functional ability, but about a  per cent lower chance of good emotional wellbeing. Participants who were HIV-infected were more likely to be in better health but less likely to be receiving care than those who were * Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Somkhele, South Africa. † Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, UK. ‡ Division of Population Health, University College London, UK. § Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Southampton, UK. Ageing & Society, Page  of . f Cambridge University Press  The online version of this article is published within an Open Access environment subject to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution licence . doi:./SX 