HealthDay Reporter THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Caring for a loved one at home can be rewarding, but it can also be overwhelming and take a toll on your own health, a new study suggests.
According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 in 5 of the nearly 18 million Americans who provide informal, unpaid care may be in fair or poor health.
"As the population of America ages and the number of older adults with diseases such as Alzheimer's continue to grow, there concomitantly has been a growth in the number of non-paid, informal caregivers," said Dr. Teresa Murray Amato, director of geriatric emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City.
"Many of these caregivers are family members, which can be very helpful for allowing older adults to remain at home," said Amato, who was not part of the study.
Over the three years of the study (2015 to 2017), using data from 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, researchers led by the CDC's Valerie Edwards found that 21% of more than 252,000 respondents were caregivers. Nearly 20% of them rated their health fair or poor.
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