Caregivers Need Care Too

About one in six Americans who work a full-time job tell Gallup they are also a caregiver -- meaning they take care of an elderly or disabled family member, relative, or friend. So in addition to the demands of working -- and for those who are parents, taking care of their children -- they also have to balance caring for another person’s medical, financial, and in many cases, day-to-day needs.

Gallup’s Dan Witters is out this week with a new analysis -- the first in a special multi-part series -- revealing that American caregivers have significantly lower wellbeing than those who don't carry the same responsibility.

Caregivers’ Well-Being Index score -- Gallup’s multi-dimensional measure of overall wellbeing -- is 66.4. Non-Caregivers’ Well-Being Index score is 70.2.

Witters’ article also details the specific areas of wellbeing in which caregivers suffer the most compared with non-caregivers and looks at the effects of caregiving on wellbeing by age.

AARP announced this week its new Ambassador for Care, Leeza Gibbons, who, according to the organization’s press release, “will bring information and resources to the more than 44 million Americans who are caregivers.”

Gibbons, who was herself a caregiver for her mother, noted in an interview about her new role, that caregiving can be “depleting, spiritually and financially,” and that families dealing with caregiving often risk “having the well members . . . become sick.”


Gallup’s research clearly shows that caregivers sacrifice their own wellbeing. For the individual, this can mean diminished physical and emotional health, as well as poorer financial and workplace wellbeing. For the employers they work for and the communities they live in, this could mean less productive and engaged workers and citizens.

Caregivers, however, are providing an important and necessary service for the people they are helping, and the Gallup data provide insight into areas in which family, friends, employers, and community leaders can proactively find ways to support America’s caregivers.

Future articles in the Gallup series will look more in-depth at caregivers’ emotional health, physical health, and daily energy, job satisfaction, and lost productivity.

To stay up to date on Gallup’s latest findings on caregivers in the United States, sign up to receive all of our wellbeing news via e-mail alert or RSS.

To get the latest news from Thrive as soon as it publishes, sign up for our feed via e-mail.

Are you a caregiver? Comment below and tell us how your caregiving responsibilities impact your wellbeing. Please share your ideas for how your employer or community could help support you.