A look at a sweeping study that shows how many adults care for others on an ongoing basis by Barbara Dillon of the MetLife Foundation.

We care for our children.  We tend to our spouses.  Many of us provide a high level of care for our aging parents.

It may be a labor of love, but it can also be a struggle that takes its toll on us and our families.

A sweeping national study of people caring for adults, the elderly and children with special needs from the National Alliance for Caregiving, AARP and MetLife Foundation reveals that 29% of the U.S. adult population, or 65.7 million people, are caregivers, including 31% of all households. On average, these caregivers provide 20 hours of care per week.

What does the face of caregiving look like in America? American caregivers are predominantly female (66%) and are an average of 48 years old.  Most care for a relative (86%), most often a parent (36%).  Seven in ten care for someone over age 50.  One in seven provides care, over and above regular parenting, to a child with special needs (14%).  Caregiving lasts an average of 4.6 years.

Caregiving takes a toll on the caregiver, too. One in six caregivers (17%) reports that caregiving has had a negative impact on their health.  31% say caregiving has caused them to be highly stressed.

And, how about our jobs?  More than seven in ten caregivers were employed at some time when they were caregiving (73%).  Among this group, two-thirds have gone in late, left early, or taken time off during the day to deal with caregiving issues (66%).  One in five took a leave of absence (20%).  There’s some good news in these numbers: during a recession, when feelings of job security would be expected to be low, these findings seem somewhat encouraging.  This could suggest that employers have become more tolerant of informal flextime behavior on the part of their employees.

Caregivers in the more intensive care situations—those who provide 21+ hours of care each week, have a high burden of care, are the primary caregiver, or share a household with their care recipient—report having to make even more work-related accommodations.  For example, those with a high burden of care are more likely than those in low burden situations to have made one or more of these changes (83% vs. 64%).  17% are more likely than those in low (5%) or medium (7%) burden situations to have given up work entirely.

Women caregivers are more likely than males to have made certain work arrangements:  reducing hours or taking a less demanding job (16% vs. 6%), giving up work entirely (12% vs. 3%), and losing job benefits (7% vs. 3%).

Hispanic caregivers are more likely to report having taken a leave of absence (35%) than White (17%) or African-American caregivers (21%).

As one who is caring for an aging parent, someone who has suffered for many years during a long illness and disability, I am pleased to say there are solutions, many of which were identified by participants in this study. Those surveyed recommended greater access to information resources, emergency response devices, transportation assistance and respite services for caregivers.  

Employers can play an important role, too. In the years ahead, I believe that it will be important for employers to provide varying levels of support for employees, as the number of those with caregiver responsibilities continues to grow.

Barbara Dillon serves as Program Director for MetLife Foundation, with overall responsibility for its health contributions program, which supportsmajor national health education initiatives with an emphasis on disease prevention, substance abuse, nutrition and physical activity, healthy agingand Alzheimer’s disease research.She is an expert in public health andhealth education issues. MetLife Foundation has become recognized as a leading funder of aging issues among many of the nation’s largest aging non-profits.