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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Ronda Talley, PhD, MPH¹, John E. Crews, DPA¹, Elena Andresen, PhD², and Britta Neugaard². (1) National Center on Birth Defects & Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, E-88, Atlanta, GA 30333, 404-498-3562, rtalley@cdc.gov, (2) Department of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy, University of Florida, University of Florida Health Sciences Center, Gainesville, FL 32610-0182

Caregiving is a complex, multi-dimensional effort driven by the needs of individuals with disabilities and those responsible for their care. Studies of family caregiving for those over 18 years of age yield an estimate of 44.4 million caregivers over 18 years of age in the United States. Further, over 21% of the adult U.S. population provide care for millions of its citizens. Thus, caregiving is a compelling issue for public health officials, researchers, and policy experts in disability.

Recently, health disaparities among caregivers have been increasingly represented in the scientific literature. These include gender, race, age, and disability status. The patterns of caregiving vary by race, with more Black and Hispanic caregivers believing that caregiving is a part of family life. Age is of concern, reflecting the emerging interest in children as caregivers and the challenges of older couples trying to care for one another, sometimes with decreasing health and financial resources. Further, caregiving is effected by the care recipient's disability status in terms of disability type, severity, and duration.

In this paper, we will present national data from the BRFSS that address the prevalence of individuals with disabilities 60 years and older. We also will provide caregiving statistics for this population and offer a comparison of care recipients and caregivers nationally and by state. Lastly, we will provide information on a new module that has been developed for the BRFSS on caregiving and present data from the North Carolina development and field-test process.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the characteristics of caregivers in North Carolina.
• Compare the demographic characteristics of caregivers and non-caregivers in North Carolina.
• Compare North Carolina caregivers and non-caregivers by areas of health disparity.
• Describe the new Caregiver Module development in North Carolina and now available for use by the states.

Keywords: Caregivers, Disability

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation