This caregivers article first appeared at CDC.gov

Family Caregivers: The Facts

• More than 34 million unpaid caregivers provide care to someone age 18 and older who is ill or has a disability (AARP, 2008).
• An estimated 21% of households in the United States are impacted by caregiving responsibilities (NAC, 2004).
• Unpaid caregivers provide an estimated 90% of the long-term care (IOM, 2008).
• The majority (83%) are family caregivers—unpaid persons such as family members, friends, and neighbors of all ages who are providing care for a relative (FCA, 2005).
• The typical caregiver is a 46 year old woman with some college experience and provides more than 20 hours of care each week to her mother (NAC, 2004).
• The out-of-pocket costs for caregivers who are caring for someone who was age 50 or older averaged $5,531 in 2007. About 37% of caregivers for someone age 50 and older reduced their work hours or quit their job in 2007 (AARP, 2008).
• Caregivers report having difficulty finding time for one's self (35%), managing emotional and physical stress (29%), and balancing work and family responsibilities (29%) (NAC, 2004).
• About 73% of surveyed caregivers said praying helps them cope with caregiving stress, 61% said that they talk with or seek advice from friends or relatives, and 44% read about caregiving in books or other materials (NAC, 2004).
• About 30% said they need help keeping the person they care for safe and 27% would like to find easy activities to do with the person they care for (NAC, 2004).
• Half (53%) of caregivers who said their health had gotten worse due to caregiving also said the decline in their health has affected their ability to provide care (NAC, 2006).
• Caregivers said they do not go to the doctor because they put their family's needs first (67% said that is a major reason), or they put the care recipient's needs over their own (57%). More than half (51%) said they do not have time to take care of themselves and almost half (49%) said they are too tired to do so (NAC, 2004).

References
AARP, 2008: Houser, A., et al., AARP Public Policy Institute, Valuing the Invaluable: The Economic Value of Family Caregiving, 2008 Update, 2008, http://www.aarp.org/relationships/caregiving/info-11-2008/i13_caregiving.htmlExternal Web Site Icon
FCA, 2005: Family Caregiver Alliance, Fact Sheet: Selected Caregiver Statistics, 2005. Available: http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=439External Web Site Icon
IOM, 2008: Institute on Medicine, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, April 2008, www.nap.edu/catalog/12089.htmlExternal Web Site Icon
NAC, 2004: National Alliance for Caregiving/AARP, Caregiving in the U.S., 2004, http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/us_caregiving_1.pdf Adobe PDF file [PDF-1.1Mb]External Web Site Icon
NAC, 2006: National Alliance for Caregiving, Evercare Study of Caregivers in Decline, 2006, www.caregiving.org/data/Caregivers%20in%20Decline%20Study-FINAL-lowres.pdf Adobe PDF file [PDF-950Kb]External Web Site Icon

What is known about caregiving for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or other Dementia?

• An estimated 25-29% of caregivers of persons age 50 or older provide assistance to someone with a cognitive impairment, a memory problem, or a disorder like Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia (NAC, 2004).
• For Alzheimer’s disease alone, in 2008 there were an estimated 9.9 million caregivers providing 8.5 billion hours of care at a value of $94 Billion dollars (Alzheimer’s Association, 2009).
• The average age of a caregiver to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or other is 48 years old. (Alzheimer’s Association, 2009).
• 18% of children 8 to 18 years old provide unpaid care for someone (Alzheimer’s Association, 2009).
• The vast majority (87%) of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease are cared for at home by family members (Alzheimer’s Association, 2009).
• Caregivers provide assistance to a person with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia who is their parent or parent-in-law (57%), grandparent (11%), or spouse (6%; Alzheimer’s Association, 2009).
• 10% of family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease or an other dementia are doing so long distance.

References
Alzheimer’s Association, 2008: Alzheimer’s Association, 2009 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures, http://www.alz.org/national/documents/report_alzfactsfigures2009.pdf Adobe PDF file
NAC, 2004: National Alliance for Caregiving/AARP, Caregiving in the U.S., 2004, http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/il/us_caregiving_1.pdf Adobe PDF file

Accessed:
July 20, 2013 at https://www.cdc.gov/aging/caregiving/facts.htm
May 2, 2013 at http://www.cdc.gov/aging/caregiving/alzheimer.htm

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