Caregiving in the U.S. Study

The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP released an updated version of their Caregiving in the U.S. report earlier this month, which surveys 1,500 caregivers around the country. The New York Times' New Old Age blog posts about the report and the NYT Economix blog addresses what the impact would be of paying family caregivers:

Most of the money would go to women, who represent 67 percent of all caregivers. If care recipients themselves paid the bill, most of the money would come from women, who represent 68 percent of elder-care recipients. Indeed, the average unpaid elder-care provider, at age 50, balances on the cusp of the dependent age category.

Women live longer than men on average and therefore become more vulnerable to the care-intensive problems of extreme old age.

Economists tend to assume that women simply choose to provide care because it gives them satisfaction. But more than 43 percent of all caregivers in the survey reported that they felt that they had no choice. They stepped forward for a variety of reasons: because no other family member or friend was willing or able to provide adequate care or because paid services were economically out of reach.

The Future of Aging blog, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal also posted about the report.