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。对美国非正式护理人员的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，研究照顾者的监测方法差异很大。据公布的估计，该国非正规护理人员的人数在350万至4440万之间。估计数差异很大，主要是因为在实地对死亡的定义缺乏共识。在种族和族裔多样化的社区，种族隔离的性质、范围和影响可能尤其被低估。本论文的研究将回顾目前用于研究护理人员在国家数据集的方法，并探讨如何在定义和调查设计的差异影响估计的患病率和护理人员在美国的配置文件。到目前为止，还没有研究人员比较过数据集的差异。这项研究的结果将为未来的研究提供信息，概念定义和调查设计如何影响护理研究，并作为对当前护理数据集研究的解释指南。第一个目的（1）是描述在美国的照顾者，包括在定义的关键问题的定义和调查设计方法的国家调查的方法差异。第二个目标（2）是在定义保持不变的情况下，在用于验证估计数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，检查调查设计方法对流行率估计数的影响。特别令人感兴趣的是调查方法对全国人口中特定亚组（例如种族和族裔少数群体、年轻人和男性照顾者）的流行率估计的影响。第三个目的（3）是调查不同的定义的照顾者如何影响估计的照顾者人数和特征。

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.