Family Caregiver Stats
Stress of family caregiving for persons with dementia has been shown to impact a person’s immune system for up to three years after their caregiving ends, thus increasing their chances of developing a chronic illness themselves. Source: Drs. Janice-Kiecolt Glaser and Ronald Glaser, “Chronic stress and age-related increases in the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 30, 2003
Esther and Anne
Family caregivers report having a chronic condition at more than twice the rate of non-caregivers. Source: Health and Human Services, Informal Caregiving: Compassion in Action. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services. Based on data from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), 1998 and the National Family Caregivers Association, Random Sample Survey of Family Caregivers, Summer 2000, Unpublished and National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Caregiving in the U.S., 2004.
American businesses can lose as much as $34 billion each year due to employees’ need to care for loved ones 50 years of age and older. Source: Metlife Mature Market Institute and National Alliance for Caregiving, MetLife Caregiving Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business, July 2006.
10% of employed family caregivers go from full-time to part-time jobs because of their caregiving responsibilities. Source: National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, Caregiving in the U.S., 2004. Both male and female children of aging parents make changes at work in order to accommodate caregiving responsibilities. Both have modified their schedules (men 54%, women 56%). Both have come in late and/or leave early (men 78%, women 84%) and both have altered their work-related travel (men 38%, women 27%). Source: MetLife Mature Market Institute, Sons at Work: Balancing Employment and Eldercare, June 2003.