Caregiving in the US 2009 Report:
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About this Report

The purpose of this study is to present a portrait of family caregivers today, and to compare it to a portrait of caregivers in the past. A national profile of caregivers first emerged from the 1997 Caregiving in the U.S. study. A related study was conducted in 2004, and now, in 2009, we are presenting the results of the third wave of this important study. Each of the three studies has inquired about certain core elements of caregiving situations, while also exploring new areas.

The core areas that we examined include:

  • The prevalence of caregivers in the U.S.
  • Demographic characteristics of caregivers and care recipients
  • The caregiving situation in terms of the nature of caregiving activities, the intensity and duration of care, the health conditions and living situation of the person to whom care is provided, and other unpaid and paid help provided
  • How caregivers are affected by their role, at work, at home, and in their health situation
  • Information needs and information sources

This year’s unique areas of exploration were the use of the Internet for information, what public policies would support caregivers, and the use of technology. For the first time, this year’s study also includes caregivers of children with special needs, in addition to the caregivers of adults age 50 or older included in the 1997 study and age 18 or older in 2004. In addition, this is the first Caregiving in the U.S. report to present trends from the prior study.

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Overview of Methodology

This report is based primarily on quantitative telephone interviews with 1,480 family caregivers age 18 or older. Caregivers are defined as those who provide unpaid care to an adult or a child with special needs (See Appendix B for details).

The interviews include a random sample of 1,000 family caregivers and, to supplement the ethnic minority interviews achieved in that sample, 480 additional interviews with minorities. The interviews break out by race as follows: 858 White, non-Hispanic caregivers, 200 African-American caregivers, 201 Hispanic caregivers, 200 Asian-American caregivers, and 21 caregivers of another race. These results came from screening 6,806 adults.

The random sample interviews were reached using random digit dialing. Geographic density samples were used to target the oversample of African-Americans. For Hispanics and Asian-Americans, a combination of surname and density sampling was used. In addition, Knowledge Networks screened their Asian panel members to pre-identify Asian- American caregivers.

Reading this Report

The main graphics and tables in this report present results for all 1,480 caregivers in the 2009 study. For any questions that were also asked in 2004, the trend among caregivers of adults age 18 or older is shown in mini-tables to the right of each graphic.

All figures have been weighted and rounded. In addition, “don’t know” or “refused” responses are not always presented in charts and tables. For these reasons, some charts and tables will not add to 100%. The results for multiple response questions may also add to greater than 100%.

For statistical purposes, the base number of respondents shown in each table or graphic is unweighted.

To signal key differences between 2004 and 2009 findings, the report uses an asterisk to highlight any percentage that is significantly higher than the comparison figure.