New research reveals economic and social impacts of caregivers in North central and Northeast US

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Groundbreaking research conducted by a multi-state team, including Shoshanah Inwood, associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES), has unveiled the caregiving experiences of households in the North Central and Northeast regions of the U.S.

The preliminary findings, released as two regionally focused "Research Snapshots," offer insights into caregiver demographics, the financial and personal impacts of caregiving, and the types of support that caregivers seek.

"Our caregiving survey was designed to understand caregiving across the life course, including children, adults, and elderly," said Inwood, who researches community, food, and economic development in the CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR). "This also included learning more about individuals and families who provide care, and how caregiving affects economic development and quality of life in each region."

The research team found that caregiving is a common experience, with about eight in 10 respondents in the two regions having provided care to children and/or adults. In addition, for almost half of the respondents, caregiving has affected their mental and/or emotional health.

Over the summer, the team is continuing to analyze the data to better understand differences in caregiving and its impacts on caregivers across urban, suburban, rural areas, and among respondents working in the agricultural sector.

The Research Snapshots were developed as a complement to two recently published, open-access regional datasets that resulted from the surveys, titled "NCR-Stat: Caregiving" and "NER-Stat: Caregiving." The datasets were designed to be accessible to researchers and organizations working on caregiving issues, Inwood said.

The snapshots, created by Inwood and Florence Becot, Nationwide Insurance Early Career Professor in Agricultural Safety and Health at Penn State University and an SENR alumnae, were published by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, respectively.

Key takeaways from the research:

• Caregiving is a common experience: Almost four in five respondents (79%) have provided care to children and/or adults at some point in the past. Almost half of the sample (49%) have provided care in the last 12 months.
• Caregiving is often a family affair: Individuals caring for children were most often the parent of that child (60%), followed by their grandparent (20%), and their aunt/uncle (15%). Those caring for adults were most often the child of that adult (38%), followed by their spouse/partner (24%), and their parent (16%).
• Health care needs of children and adults being cared for: The health care needs of children and adults are noticeably different. Only one-third (34%) of children cared for had a health condition, compared to 83% of adults.
• Time and financial resources needed for caregiving: Caring for children requires more time than caring for adults. Over two-thirds of respondents caring for children or adults paid for some care.
• Intersection between caregiving and household finances: Caregiving responsibilities often intersect with household needs and can impact the household's finances. Respondents shared that caregiving affected their ability to perform their household responsibilities (46%) and their ability to perform paid work (43%).
• Varying impacts of caregiving on caregivers' health and well-being: Caregiving is more likely to affect the caregivers' mental and/or emotional health (48%) and social life (41%) than it was to impact physical health (30%).
• Policies and programs to support caregivers: Respondents identified a variety of policies and programs that would better support their roles as caregivers.

"These findings provide valuable insights into the experiences of caregivers and the impacts of caregiving on their lives, which can inform the development of policies and programs to better support caregivers," Inwood said.

Childcare is a definite national agricultural policy issue, Inwood said, and she has worked tirelessly to get it added into the 2024 Farm Bill. She has given testimony before Congress and has worked with various committees to have childcare recognized as the important issue that it is.

The 2023 survey is part of a larger effort to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration across states, among researchers and Extension. The survey was collaboratively developed by researchers from the NCRCRD, The Ohio State University, the National Farm Medicine Center, Penn State, AARP, University of Minnesota, Purdue University, University of Rhode Island, and South Dakota State University.

"This dataset includes responses from over 4,000 caregivers from all 12 states in the North Central region and will allow academic and non-profit researchers to explore caregiving at the regional level, state level, and compare rural and urban populations." said Inwood. "We intentionally designed this survey to provide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with a better understanding of caregiving within their states, and to provide seed data that can be leveraged for more in-depth studies.

"An exciting outcome of our work is that the survey is being replicated in the northeast and the south by the CRD's in those regions," she said. "Collectively these datasets can be used to inform more holistic caregiving programs and policies at the state, regional, and national level."

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