Emphasize caregiving in the LTCI equation

* Approximately 60 percent of family caregivers are women. ¹

* The average length of caregiving is 4.3 years. ¹

* Thirty percent of family caregivers caring for seniors are themselves aged 65 or over; another 15 percent are between the ages of 45 to 54. ²

* The caregiver time commitment can be substantial. The number of hours per week that family caregivers spend assisting a sick/disabled relative is:

• More than 40 hours- — 29 percent;
• 11 to 40 hours — 27 percent,
• 5 to 10 hours — 22 percent. ³

* Caregivers are three times more likely to get sick; this risk does not end when the person they are caring for dies. ⁴

* Family caregivers experiencing extreme stress have been shown to age prematurely. This level of stress can take as much as 10 years off a family caregiver’s life. ⁵

SOURCES
1. “Caregiving in the U.S.,” National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, 2004
2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “The Characteristics of Long-term Care Users.” Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2001.
3. “Women and Health Care: A National Profile,” Kaiser Family Foundation, July 2005.
4. NBC Nightly News, July, 2003
5. Elissa S. Epel, Dept. of Psychiatry, UCSF, et al, from the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” Dec. 7, 2004, Vol. 101, No. 49.