Study: Jobs Suffer for People Caring for Relatives With Alzheimer's

People who care for elderly relatives rather than putting them in a nursing facility frequently miss work or leave their jobs entirely, according to researchers from San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Many of these caregivers are responsible for the care of elderly relatives suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Hispanic, African American and female caregivers are especially likely to make these kinds of sacrifices, according to the study published in Journals of Gerontology.

"These caregivers are the backbone of our system of caring for the elderly. We found that a lot of them are making significant sacrifices, including missing time at work or quitting their jobs altogether," said Dr. Kenneth Covinsky, University of California, San Francisco assistant professor and lead author of the study.

Two thirds of the elderly people who are eligible to living in nursing homes get their care at home instead, most often from members of their extended family, the researchers said.

Researchers surveyed more than 2,800 elderly people who were eligible for, but not living, in a nursing home and the people who were helping to care for them.

Fifty-four percent of the elderly in the study had some form of dementia. Twenty-two percent of the elderly surveyed had a caregiver who had cut back on their hours at work or quit their job to provide care, according to the study.

Hispanics, African Americans and women were more likely to limit their time at work and Hispanics were twice as likely to make this kind of sacrifice. The ethnic disparity may be related to cultural differences or access to care, said Covinsky.

"There's some evidence that, in general, African Americans and Hispanics believe more strongly that family members are responsible for taking care of younger and older generations. Another possibility is simply that there is less access to nursing home services in these communities," said Covinsky.

"These caregivers are saving the public health system a lot of money because, for almost all the patients in our sample, if they didn't get care at home they would be drawing on the Medicaid system," Covinsky said.

"We need to find ways to minimize the sacrifice of these caregivers, perhaps through tax breaks for caregiving, or other ways of assisting caregivers so that they don't need to take time off from work," he said.

Other sources: University of California, San Francisco, Journals of Gerontology