Factors Associated With Caregivers’ Use of Support Services and Caregivers’ Nonuse of Services Sought

ABSTRACT

Informal caregivers may face barriers accessing services like respite care, training, and support groups. Using multinomial logistic regression, I modeled caregivers’ probability of using all services sought (“all services used”) and nonuse of any services sought (“any unused services”) as a function of caregiver and care-recipient characteristics. Care-recipient health and function, especially dementia and need for medical task assistance, were associated with all services used and any unused services, and any unused services were more likely among adult children caring for their parents, caregivers of Black and Hispanic older adults, caregivers providing intensive care, caregivers living in metropolitan areas, and residents of states that spend more on increasing access to caregiver services under the National Family Caregiver Support Program. Regularly scheduled caregiving was associated with higher likelihood of all services used, but not with any unused services. Steps should be taken to increase access for caregivers who provide intensive care, care to dementia patients, or assistance with medical tasks and for Hispanic families.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal caregiving
• racial disparities
• public policy
• access to services
• caregiver services

Acknowledgments

For their substantive comments on earlier drafts of this work, I am grateful to my advisor, Fred Wolinsky, and the other members of my dissertation committee: Kitty Buckwalter, Keith Mueller, Padmaja Ayyagari, and Kanika Arora. I also wish to acknowledge Fred Ullrich and Maureen Skehan, both of whom assisted with obtaining and managing the data on which this work relies.

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by a Post-Comprehensive Research Award from the University of Iowa and by funds from the John W. Colloton Chair. The work relies on data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, which is funded by the National Institute on Aging through a cooperative agreement with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (contract number NIA U01AG032947).