ElderWeb

The Annuls of Internal Medicine published a study on the burdens of caregiving. They found that over a 1/3 of patients reported substantial care needs, such as transportation, homemaking, personal care, and nursing care. Patients with substantial care needs were more likely to report financial burdens, such as having to spend at least 10% of household income on health care, having to take out loans, having caregivers who needed to work two jobs, or having to spend savings. Patients with substantial care needs were also more likely than those without such needs to consider voluntarily ending their lives, and their caregivers were more likely to be depressed and to report that caring for the patient interfered substantially with their own lives. The study concluded that physicians could help reduce the problems experienced by caregivers, since patients who reported having physicians who listened to the patient and caregiver reported fewer caregiver burdens.