Family caregivers, also known as informal or unpaid
caregivers, are individuals who provide unpaid care for loved ones. Family
caregivers all provide care, but are a diverse group comprised of people of
different ages, backgrounds, education levels, and languages. Caregiving will
continue to increase in the United States as larger numbers of people age and
will need care. Individuals aged 65 and older will more than double from 35.1
million in 2000 to an estimated 71.5 million in 2030 (Coughlin, 2010).
Here are some important facts and figures of caregiving:
Scope and Scale:
·
In 2009, 29% of
American adults provided care for a loved one who was ill, disabled or aged.
That is 65.7 million people (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009).
·
Family caregivers
provided services valued at $450 billion dollars per year in 2009 (Feinberg,
Reinhard, Houser, & Choula, 2011).
·
The value of $450
billion dollars is more than the value of paid home care, and more than total
Wal-Mart sales in 2009 ($408 billion dollars).
·
An estimated 66% of
caregivers are female (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009)
·
The average caregiver
is female and 49.2 years old (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009).
·
More than one in six
Americans working part or full time provide caregiving. Caregivers working at
least 15 hours a week report caregiving significantly affects work (Cynkar
& Mendes, 2011).
·
Time spent caregiving
depends on whether the caregiver lives with the care recipient. On average, a
caregiver who lives apart from the care recipient provides 20.4 per week of
care. In contrast, a caregiver who lives with the care recipient provides 39.3
hours per week of care (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009).
·
One-third of
caregivers provide care for less than a year. The average duration of
caregiving, however, is 4.6 years (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009).
Health Status and
Disparities:
·
Research is varied but
an estimated 17-35% of caregivers report poor to fair health status (Feinberg
et al., 2011).
·
Research is again
varied on mental health outcomes. 40 to 70% of caregivers have clinically
significant symptoms of depression. A quarter to half of these caregivers would
meet the criteria for major depression (Zarit, 2006).
·
27% of Hispanic
caregivers report health status as poor or fair. In contrast, only 15% of White
and Asian-American caregivers report the same health status (National Alliance
for Caregiving, 2009).
·
Over half of
African-American caregivers report they are part of the sandwich generation in
which they care for an older person and a person under age 18 and/or care for
two older people. Additionally, they are more likely to live with care
recipients and are more likely to provide more personal care than other
caregivers. Personal care includes dressing, feeding, getting in and out of
bed, etc. (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2009).
References:
Coughlin, J. (2010). Estimating the impact of caregiving
and employment on well-being. Outcomes
& Insights in Health Management, 2(1), 1-7.
Cynkar, P., & Mendes, E. (2011). More than one in six American workers also act as caregivers. Retrieved
from http://www.gallup.com/poll/148640/one-six-american-workers-act-caregivers.aspx
Feinberg, L., Reinhard, S. C., Houser, A., & Choula, R.
(2011). Valuing the invaluable: 2011
update the growing contributions and costs of family caregiving. Retrieved
from http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/ppi/ltc/i51-caregiving.pdf
National Alliance for
Caregiving. (2009). Caregiving in the U.
S. Retrieved from http://www.caregiving.org/data/Caregiving_in_the_US_2009_full_report.pdf
Zarit, S. H. (2006). Assessment of Family Caregivers: A research
perspective. Retrieved from https://caregiver.org/sites/caregiver.org/files/pdfs/v2_consensus.pdf
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