Cross Survey Comparison of Informal Caregiving to the Disabled Elderly in the US

描述（由申请人提供）：非正式护理人员是美国长期护理系统的重要组成部分。在美国，对非正式护理人员进行公共卫生监测对于促进社区健康老龄化、告知公共支持系统和研究长期护理的经济成本是必要的。然而，研究护理人员的监测方法差异很大。公布的估计数字显示，这个国家非正规护理人员的数量在350万到4440万之间。这种估计上的巨大差异主要源于该领域对护理的定义缺乏共识。在种族和族裔多样化的社区中，护理的性质、范围和影响可能特别被低估。本论文将回顾目前用于研究国家数据集中护理人员的方法，并探讨定义和调查设计的差异如何影响美国护理人员的估计患病率和概况。到目前为止，还没有研究人员对不同数据集的护理进行比较。本研究的结果将为未来的研究提供信息，以了解概念定义和调查设计如何影响护理研究，并为解释当前护理者数据集的研究提供指导。第一个目的(1)是描述在美国照顾者的国家调查的方法差异，包括在照顾的定义和调查设计方法的关键问题。第二个目的(2)是在定义保持不变的情况下，检查调查设计方法对用于护理估计的三个主要国家调查（国家长期护理调查、健康和退休调查以及收入和计划参与调查）中患病率估计的影响。特别令人感兴趣的是调查方法对全国照护人口中特定亚群体（如种族和族裔少数群体、年轻人和男性照护者）患病率估计的影响。第三个目的(3)是调查不同的照顾者定义如何影响对照顾者数量和特征的估计。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Informal caregivers are a critical part of the long-term care system in the US. Public health surveillance of informal caregivers in the United States is necessary to promote healthy aging in the community, inform public support systems and research the economic cost of long-term care. However, the surveillance methods for studying caregivers vary widely. Published estimates of the number of informal caregivers in this country range from 3.5 million to 44.4 million. This wide variation in estimates stems largely from a lack of consensus in the field regarding the definition of caregiving. The nature, scope and impact of caregiving may be particularly underestimated in racially and ethnically diverse communities. This proposed dissertation research will review current methods used to study caregivers in national data sets and explore how differences in definition and survey design influence the estimated prevalence and profile of caregivers in the United States. To date no researcher has compared caregiving across data sets. Findings from this study will inform future research on how concept definition and survey design can affect caregiving research, and serve as a guide for the interpretation of research from current caregiver data sets. The first aim (1) is to describe methodological differences in national surveys of caregivers in the United States, including key issues in the definition of caregiving and survey design methodology. The second aim (2) is to examine the implication of survey design methodology on prevalence estimates in three major national surveys used for caregiving estimates, the National Long Term Care Survey, Health and Retirement Survey and Survey of Income and Program Participation, when definition is held constant. Particularly of interest is the impact of survey methodology on the prevalence estimates of particular subgroups within the national caregiving population (e.g. racial and ethnic minorities, young adults, and male caregivers). The third aim (3) is to investigate how different definitions of caregiver affect estimates of caregiver numbers and characteristics.