-
Informal Caregiving for Older Americans: An Analysis of the 2011 National Study of Caregiving
-
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on policy development issues, and is responsible for major activities in the areas of legislative and budget development, strategic planning, policy research and evaluation, and economic analysis.
ASPE develops or reviews issues from the viewpoint of the Secretary, providing a perspective that is broader in scope than the specific focus of the various operating agencies. ASPE also works closely with the HHS operating agencies. It assists these agencies in developing policies, and planning policy research, evaluation and data collection within broad HHS and administration initiatives. ASPE often serves a coordinating role for crosscutting policy and administrative activities.
ASPE plans and conducts evaluations and research--both in-house and through support of projects by external researchers--of current and proposed programs and topics of particular interest to the Secretary, the Administration and the Congress.
Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy
The Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy (DALTCP), within ASPE, is responsible for the development, coordination, analysis, research and evaluation of HHS policies and programs which support the independence, health and long-term care of persons with disabilities--children, working aging adults, and older persons. DALTCP is also responsible for policy coordination and research to promote the economic and social well-being of the elderly.
In particular, DALTCP addresses policies concerning: nursing home and community-based services, informal caregiving, the integration of acute and long-term care, Medicare post-acute services and home care, managed care for people with disabilities, long-term rehabilitation services, children’s disability, and linkages between employment and health policies. These activities are carried out through policy planning, policy and program analysis, regulatory reviews, formulation of legislative proposals, policy research, evaluation and data planning.
This report was prepared under contract #HHSP23337003T between HHS’s ASPE/DALTCP and the Urban Institute. For additional information about this subject, you can visit the DALTCP home page at http://aspe.hhs.gov/office_specific/daltcp.cfm or contact the ASPE Project Officers, Helen Lamont and John Drabek, at HHS/ASPE/DALTCP, Room 424E, H.H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20201. Their e-mail addresses are: Helen.Lamont@hhs.gov and John.Drabek@hhs.gov.
Brenda C. Spillman, Ph.D.Urban InstituteJennifer Wolff, Ph.D.Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthVicki A. Freedman, Ph.D.University of MichiganJudith D. Kasper, Ph.D.Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthPrepared forOffice of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care PolicyOffice of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and EvaluationU.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesContract #HHSP23337003TThe opinions and views expressed in this report are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Health and Human Services, the contractor or any other funding organization. The authors thank Patti Andreski and Maureen Skehan for their programming assistance.This report examines the role and experiences of informal caregivers for the older population, using a new resource, the National Survey of Caregiving (NSOC). The NSOC is unique in interviewing all informal caregivers for a nationally representative sample of persons age 65 or older receiving assistance with daily activities. NSOC respondents report on types of assistance they provide beyond traditional household (IADL) and self-care or mobility (ADL) tasks. These tasks range from assisting with transportation to help with health or medical care, including such things as injections or ostomy care. Thus, estimates capture the full range of supports informal caregivers provide and contributions they make in areas other than explicit long-term care. Information collected about positive and negative aspects of caregiving, health, and indicators of subjective well-being allows examination of how gains and burdens differ by caregiver and care recipient characteristics and by the intensity of care provided. -
The following acronyms are mentioned in this report.
-
Executive Summary
-
Introduction
-
Background
-
Data, Measures, and Methods
-
Profile of Informal Caregivers and Hours of CARE Provided
-
Types of Assistance and Hours of CARE
-
Balance of Positive and Negative Aspects of Caregiving
-
Caregiving, Health, Participation and Well-being
-
Summary and Implications
-
References
-
Analyses of the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study and National Study on Caregiving
-

"NHATS-IC.pdf" (pdf, 548.27Kb)
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®