Informal Care and Economic Stressors

This chapter uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to describe how informal care provided by adult children and spousal caregivers interact with economic stress. Multiple economic factors influence whether a person becomes an informal caregiver. The economic impacts of caregiving are modest in the research literature, but readily quantifiable economic impacts may not provide a complete picture. The Great Recession offers an example of how the macroeconomic climate can affect informal care activities and informal caregivers' economic situations more generally. There are differences in real wealth, debt, debt-to-income ratios, housing insecurity, employment, and insurance coverage between caregivers and noncaregivers. Economic stress may create unintentional negative impacts on the caregiving dyad.

Duke Scholars

Author Courtney Harold Van Houtven Population Health Sciences