How Much Long-Term Care Do Adult Children Provide?

The brief’s key findings are:

• As people age and their health deteriorates, they begin to need more help with daily activities.
• While many formal long-term care services are available, cost concerns and personal preferences lead many to rely on informal care from adult children.
• At any given point, 6 percent of adult children serve as caregivers, and 17 percent will take on this role at some point in their lives.
• Those who do provide care devote an average of 77 hours per month, which can take a toll on both the finances and health of the caregiver.
• The caregiving burden on adult children is likely to become a bigger concern as baby boomers move into their 80s.