Consumers to Pollsters: Caregiving? What's That?

When pollsters asked the survey participants who would care for them if they became seriously ill, only 10% of the pre-retirees and 13% of the retirees said they would get care from medical professionals.

About 63% said they would get care from a spouse, and 11% said they would get care from a daughter.

The study team found that retirees are starting to be less confident that they will be able to get care from a spouse. Only 48% of the retirees said a spouse would be their caregiver if they became seriously ill; 19% said a daughter would handle the job.

Jodi Olshevski, a gerontologist at Hartford who has written the book “Stress Reduction for Caregivers,” said the Hartford gerontology group, said at the press conference that she was surprised that the risk of having to provide care for a loved one ranked so on the list of top concerns about retirement.

“The truth is that the number of adult children who have started to provide either personal care or financial care for an older relative over the 15 years has tripled,” Olshevski said. “I think it’s really critical that people begin to think about this as a role that they probably will fall into.”

Some people may spend less time on caregiving than others, or take a less active role, but the issue is still likely to affect them, Olshevski said.

Olshevski also commented on the pre-retirees’ assumption that their spouses will be their primary caregivers if they do need care.

“That works out really well if you’re a man,” Olshevski said.

Women tend to outlive their husbands, however, and they, especially, need to be working hard to build support networks if they want to be able to use informal care to stay in their own homes as long as possible, Olshevski said.