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Caregiving for Older Adults and the Caregivers’ Health: an Epidemiologic Review

  • Social Epidemiology (JM Oakes, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

In light of rapid population aging, care for older adults will dominate health and health care costs for decades to come. Informal caregiving or unpaid care for family members, may offset the high costs of formal care options for older adults. However, informal caregiving can be physically and emotionally demanding, and maintaining informal caregivers’ health will be crucial to support the needs of this growing older adult population. This paper situates the literature on caregivers’ health in the context of social epidemiology to clarify the etiologic evidence on caregiving influencing the caregiver’s health and what future directions for both social epidemiology and caregiving research might advance both fields. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks to integrated multi-level and complex processes by which people become caregivers and how caregiving might affect the caregiver’s health could mutually benefit social epidemiology and caregiving. Moreover, wider application of epidemiologic principles and methods, particularly those from newer focus on causal inference, could complement the existing evidence on caregivers’ health.

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  1. University of Minnesota, 1300 S 2nd St, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN, 55454, USA

    Beatrix D. Capistrant

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  1. Beatrix D. Capistrant
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Correspondence to Beatrix D. Capistrant.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Social Epidemiology

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Capistrant, B.D. Caregiving for Older Adults and the Caregivers’ Health: an Epidemiologic Review. Curr Epidemiol Rep 3, 72–80 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-016-0064-x

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