Families Caring for an Aging America (2016) / Chapter Skim
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2 Older Adults Who Need Caregiving and the Family Caregivers Who Help Them
2 Older Adults Who Need Caregiving and the Family Caregivers Who Help Them
Pages 43-72
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From page 43... ...
The second is to review demographic and societal trends affecting the demand for and supply of family caregivers, including the marked growth in and aging of the older adult population; the increasing diversity of the older adult population; the changing nature of fam ily relationships; women's growing participation in the workforce; and the declining size of American families. Chapter 1 noted that millions of Americans in every walk of life are engaged in or affected by family caregiving for older adults.
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From page 44... ...
Future research may also bring new therapies that can prevent or minimize disability from stroke, diabetes, and other conditions. Understanding the Available Data Examining the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults is challenging because researchers use different assumptions and survey methods for identifying the older adults who need help and who their caregivers are.
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From page 45... ...
such as using the telephone, taking medications, managing money, doing housework and laundry, preparing meals, and shopping for groceries.1 Although difficulty performing household activities creates a need for assistance from others, difficulty with self-care suggests a need for more intensive help. National Health and Aging Trends Study and the National Survey of Caregivers The prevalence data presented in this chapter (and throughout this report)
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From page 46... ...
NSOC estimates, which are reviewed later in the chapter, do not include family caregivers of nursing home residents. Thus, population-based estimates on the number of family caregivers assisting older adults in nursing homes are not available.
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From page 47... ...
. Household help includes assistance (for health or functioning reasons only)
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From page 48... ...
"Probable dementia" includes individuals whose doctor said they had dementia or Alzheimer's disease and individuals classified as having probable dementia based on results from a proxy screening instrument and several cognitive tests. Excludes nursing home residents.
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From page 49... ...
provided care to a high-need older adult. This estimate does not include caregivers of nursing home residents, and comparable information about the number of family care ivers assisting older adults in nursing homes is not available.
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From page 50... ...
SOURCES: Data from the 2011 NHATS and the companion NSOC. TABLE 2-3 Average Number of Years That Caregivers of Older Adults Spent Caregiving at the Time of the Survey Average Number of Years Percentage 1 year or less 15.3 2 to 4 years 34.7 5 to 10 years 34.9 More than 10 years 15.1 NOTES: Includes family caregivers of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the continental United States who resided in community or residential care settings (other than nursing homes)
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From page 51... ...
Freedman's analysis drew from the 2011 Current Population Survey, life tables from the National Center for Health Statistics, and the 2011 NSOC and NHATS datasets to develop assumptions about future prevalence of disability, numbers of available caregivers, and mortality rates. The analysis assumed that current age-specific caregiving rates (based on NSOC data)
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From page 52... ...
. Excludes caregivers of nursing home residents.
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From page 53... ...
As noted earlier, the family caregiv ers included in NSOC data are caregivers of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the continental United States who need help due to health or functioning. Caregivers of nursing home residents are excluded.
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From page 54... ...
(percentage) Age 20-44 14.7 15.6 33.6 45-54 23.7 23.4 14.3 55-64 26.8 28.4 12.2 65-74 18.9 16.3 7.2 75+ 13.4 13.0 6.1 Gender Male 38.3 36.2 48.5 Female 61.7 63.8 51.5 Race/ethnicity White, non-Hispanic 70.9 66.4 67.0 Black, non-Hispanic 12.6 12.4 12.0 Other, non-Hispanic 4.8 5.7 6.0 Hispanic 11.6 15.2 15.0 Education Less than high school 12.9 13.1 14.1 High school graduate or 25.5 24.8 28.4 equivalent More than high school/less 33.2 35.4 29.0 than bachelor's degree Bachelor's degree or higher 26.9 24.9 28.5 NOTES: Includes family caregivers of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the continental United States who resided in community or residential care settings (other than nursing homes)
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From page 55... ...
Relationship to recipient Spouse 21.5 18.1 Daughter, daughter-in-law, stepdaughter 33.6 38.0 Son, son-in-law, stepson 21.2 21.8 Other 23.7 22.1 Marital status Married/partnered 66.6 66.1 Separated/divorced 11.6 12.0 Widowed 5.9 6.0 Never married 14.3 13.7 Lives with the care recipient Yes 43.8 42.2 Children younger than 18 None 82.9 81.0 Any 15.7 17.1 NOTES: Includes family caregivers of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older in the continental United States who resided in community or residential care settings (other than nursing homes) and received help with self-care, mobility, or household activities for health or functioning reasons.
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From page 56... ...
See Chapter 4 for a review of FMLA and other workplace issues affecting family caregivers. 6 The number of caregivers who are stepchildren or in-laws of care recipients cannot be calculated from NSOC data.
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From page 57... ...
SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AFFECTING CAREGIVING A number of current and future social and demographic trends will likely affect both the need for eldercare and the availability of potential family caregivers for older adults in the future. In 2012, 43.1 million or 13.7 percent of U.S.
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From page 58... ...
. The impact of the age distribution of the older adult population on the need for family caregiving is likely to be substantial.
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. These changes will bring an evolution in the values, preferences, and meanings that individuals bring to family caregiving.
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LGBT individuals are more likely to provide care, or receive care, for or from a non-relative than non-LGBT individuals (Fredriksen-Goldsen et al., 2011)
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From page 61... ...
. Current trends in family patterns -- including lower fertility, higher rates of childlessness, changes in traditional family structures, and increases in divorce and never-married status -- lead to smaller families (especially available children and spouses)
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From page 62... ...
. Marital status is closely associated with the availability of caregivers and social supports as well as overall economic well-being (Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics, 2012; PRB, 2013)
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From page 63... ...
This change has important implications for family caregiving because adult stepchildren may have weaker feelings of obligation and provide less care to their aging stepparents than their parents (Pew Research Center, 2010; Silverstein and Giarrusso, 2010; van der Pas et al., 2013)
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From page 64... ...
• he committee estimates that 6.3 million older adults received a family T caregiver's help with household tasks or self-care for health or functioning reasons in 2011. An additional 3.5 million older adults received caregiv ing help because they had dementia and 1.1 million resided in nursing homes.
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From page 65... ...
Social and demographic trends are driving a growing gap between the de mand for and supply of family caregivers: • he size of American families continues to decline because of lower fertil T ity and higher rates of childlessness, divorce, and people never marrying. • merican families are more complex and non-traditional than the house A holds of past generations with potentially important implications for family caregiving.
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From page 66... ...
Without adequate data on family caregivers and caregiving, public and private decision makers will not have the evidence base on which to make sound decisions. Despite the limitations in the available data, the NHATS and NSOC findings presented in this chapter have important implications for individuals and families, as well as policy makers, health and social service providers, employers, and others -- particularly in light of the consequences of family caregiving reviewed later in this report.
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2011. Likelihood of African American primary care givers and care recipients receiving assistance from secondary caregivers: A rural-urban comparison.
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2008. Retooling for an aging America: Building the health care workforce.
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U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Reports.
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2005. Ethnic differences in stressors, resources, and psycho logical outcomes of family caregiving: A meta-analysis.
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From page 71... ...
In Family caregiving in the new normal, edited by J
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