Part 3 of 3. A truckload of studies shows that being a caregiver is hazardous to a caregiver's health -- not just physical health but mental health as well.
"The research indicates that caregiving (for the elderly) is a major stressor on mood, anxiety and the body -- it affects blood pressure, it affects blood glucose and it weakens the immune system," Dr. Redford Williams, director of Duke University Medical Center's Behavioral Medicine Research Center, told UPI's Caregiving. "It's mentally and physically damaging the longer you are in that role."
In a 2002 study of 254 low-income families in three U.S. cities, 52 percent reported concurrent physical and mental-health problems in both the primary caregiver and at least one of the children in the household.
"The fact that many of these caregivers face health problems usually associated with older, frail individuals, is very troubling," said co-author Dr. Linda Burton of Pennsylvania State University. "Also, we found that most of these caregivers tended to neglect their own health needs to meet the economic and health care needs of their children and extended family."
A 2003 study by Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina provides strong evidence that such continuing stress boosts the risk of age-related ailments such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis, periodontal disease, frailty and diabetes by prematurely aging caregivers' immune systems.
A study published in Stroke found the caregiver's concerns about caring for the stroke survivor and the social isolation of doing so, rather than the stroke survivor's situation, resulted in the greatest burden for the caregiver.
Another study published in the February 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found caregivers spent an average of 85 hours per week providing care to Alzheimer's patients and showed that for a six-month period the costs could rise to more than $30,000 per patient -- for direct costs of care, missed days of work and hours spent per week caring for patients.
"As Alzheimer's disease progresses, the costs to society in terms of direct healthcare costs and loss of productivity of caregivers are astronomical," Dr. Gary Small, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA and director of the UCLA Center on Aging, told Caregiving. Most Alzheimer's disease patients live at home and are not institutionalized and are cared for by a spouse, son or daughter. The burden on caregivers is heavy; almost 90 percent is borne by the caregiver, according to Small.
"The caregiver burden is tremendous -- the rate of depression is 50 percent to 75 percent. Caregivers are clinically depressed from being overwhelmed by their jobs and caregiving for family members," said Small.
"It's a high burden for caregivers -- 75 percent are women -- and they are burned out and strapped for time. And it can be isolating because there is a stigma to all diseases and if a caregiver is depressed, it gets people down to be with someone depressed."
Indiana University researchers Eliza Pavalko and Shari Woodbury studied data collected over a two-year period from nearly 3,000 women between the ages of 50 and 65 and found caring for ill or disabled family members adversely affected emotional health.
"At least half of American women will care for a disabled family member during their lifetime," said Pavalko. "These findings also suggest caution for those considering policy changes that would increase the responsibility of family members and reduce formal support for care."
The government has to recognize it must take steps to deal with the burden -- such as paying for a helper to come in so caregivers can get away. University of Pittsburgh researchers found elderly caregiving spouses who report experiencing strain were at greater risk of death than elderly spouses who were not caregivers, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Many industrialized countries have formal public support for caregivers -- stipends, pensions, tax credits -- but there is a lack of formal services and little support for caregivers in the United States, according to Lisa Gwyther, director of the Family Support Program at the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.
"We have mostly informal care. Eighty percent of elderly caregiving is done by family -- we are a country of personal accountably and everyone takes care of themselves, or if someone needs help they go to the family.
"The family thinks it's expected of them -- that's the way it's always been," Gwyther said.
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Alex Cukan is an award-winning journalist, but she always has considered caregiving her primary job. UPI welcomes comments and questions about this column. E-mail: [email protected]
