TY - JOUR
T1 - A national profile of end-of-life caregiving in the United States
AU - Ornstein, Katherine A.
AU - Kelley, Amy S.
AU - Bollens-Lund, Evan
AU - Wolff, Jennifer L.
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier version of this article was presented at the Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, June 28, 2016. The National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (Grant No. NIA U01AG32947). Katherine Ornstein's work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (Grant No. K01AG047923). Amy Kelley's work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (Grant No. K23AG040774) and the American Federation for Aging Research. Jennifer Wolff's work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (Grant No. 5R01AG047859).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Project HOPE-The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
PY - 2017/7/1
Y1 - 2017/7/1
N2 - To date, knowledge of the experiences of older adults' caregivers at the end of life has come from studies that were limited to specific diseases and so-called primary caregivers and that relied on the recollections of people in convenience samples. Using nationally representative, prospective data for 2011, we found that 900,000 community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries ages sixty-five and older who died within the following twelve months received support from 2.3 million caregivers. Nearly nine in ten of these caregivers were unpaid. Compared to other caregivers, end-of-life caregivers provided nearly twice as many hours of care per week and, especially in the case of spousal caregivers, reported more care-related challenges. Yet older adults at the end of life were not significantly more likely than other older adults to receive caregiving funded by government, state, or private insurance. To meet the needs of older adults at the end of life, their unpaid caregivers must receive greater recognition and expanded access to supportive services.
AB - To date, knowledge of the experiences of older adults' caregivers at the end of life has come from studies that were limited to specific diseases and so-called primary caregivers and that relied on the recollections of people in convenience samples. Using nationally representative, prospective data for 2011, we found that 900,000 community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries ages sixty-five and older who died within the following twelve months received support from 2.3 million caregivers. Nearly nine in ten of these caregivers were unpaid. Compared to other caregivers, end-of-life caregivers provided nearly twice as many hours of care per week and, especially in the case of spousal caregivers, reported more care-related challenges. Yet older adults at the end of life were not significantly more likely than other older adults to receive caregiving funded by government, state, or private insurance. To meet the needs of older adults at the end of life, their unpaid caregivers must receive greater recognition and expanded access to supportive services.
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U2 - 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0134
DO - 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0134
M3 - Article
C2 - 28679804
AN - SCOPUS:85021806160
SN - 0278-2715
VL - 36
SP - 1184
EP - 1192
JO - Health Affairs
JF - Health Affairs
IS - 7
ER -