• About this study
• Our findings
• Our study details

Living and caring?

An investigation of the experiences of older carers

Did you know?

21 per cent of those caring for a parent or parent-in-law had trouble getting to a GP - compared with only 2 per cent of non-carers.

from : Living and Caring?

About this study

People aged 50 and over, who devote more than 20 or more hours a week to caring for family or friends, have a worse quality of life than non-carers.

This is one of the key findings from the Living and Caring report, which assesses the impact of informal care provision on older people by comparing the experiences of carers and non-carers aged 50 and over. Experiences are compared across five key social policy domains:

• income and work
• mobility and access to services participation in leisure and community activities
• health
• housing

How we worked
We conducted this study in partnership with the International Longevity Centre UK. It was funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Potential policy impact

The Government could take a number of steps to improve the lives of older carers.

These steps include financial support, more and improved respite services, and support to ensure carers are better able to look after their own health.

Methods

Our findings are based on data collected from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing interviews conducted between 2004 and 2006.

We used regression techniques to compare the experiences of carers and non-carers across five key policy domains.

We examined any change in experiences that were associated with a person moving into or out of a caring role and the influence each policy domain had on a carer's quality of life.

The characteristics of the person being cared for and the impact this had on a carer's quality of life was also explored.

Now learn more

You can read a summary of the findings or click the download full report link, below.

Find out more about the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing here.

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