Background: Research on informal care partners (ICPs) for persons living with dementia (PLWD) has primarily focused on spousal care partners, with limited research on non-spousal ICPs. This study examines the differences in unmet ICP dementia-related care needs between spousal and non-spousal ICPs by gender and race.

Methods: A cross-sectional data analysis using baseline data was conducted on 595 demographically diverse ICPs from two community-based studies. Home visits were conducted to collect demographic, clinical, and behavioral data for ICP and care recipient dyads. The Johns Hopkins Dementia Care Needs Assessment 2.0© evaluated the presence of unmet dementia-related care needs across six domains and 18 items. Linear and logistic regression models were used to examine differences in type and total percent of unmet needs among ICPs.

Results: Overall, having unmet dementia-related care needs was common, with more than 68% of ICPs having unmet needs each for dementia education, community resources, and ICPs skills – behavior. Gender was not a significant predictor of the total percent or types of unmet needs. The relationship between non-spousal ICPs' race and total percent unmet needs was statistically significant (p <.0001). Being a Black non-spousal ICP was associated with having higher odds of having unmet needs for dementia education, behaviors, patient advocacy, and being physically inactive compared to White non-spousal ICPs. White female non-spousal ICPs had the lowest mean total percent of unmet dementia-related needs, while Black male non-spousal ICPs had the highest mean total percent of unmet needs.

Discussion: The study found that diverse ICPs experienced significant unmet needs, especially in dementia education, knowledge, and access to community resources. It also highlighted disparities in the prevalence of certain unmet needs between Black and White ICPs.