Care Received by Elderly US Stroke Survivors May Be Underestimated

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE—Previous studies exploring stroke-related caregiving focused solely on informal caregiving and a relatively limited set of activities. We sought to determine whether, and at what cost, stroke survivors receive more care than matched controls using an expanded definition of car...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Stroke (1970) 2016-08, Vol.47 (8), p.2090-2095
Main Authors: Skolarus, Lesli E, Freedman, Vicki A, Feng, Chunyang, Wing, Jeffrey J, Burke, James F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Caregivers - economics
Cost of Illness
Female
Health Care Costs
Health Surveys
Humans
Male
Stroke - economics
Stroke - nursing
Survivors
United States
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Summary:BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE—Previous studies exploring stroke-related caregiving focused solely on informal caregiving and a relatively limited set of activities. We sought to determine whether, and at what cost, stroke survivors receive more care than matched controls using an expanded definition of caregiving and inclusion of paid caregivers. METHODS—Data were drawn from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a nationally representative survey of Medicare beneficiaries. NHATS personnel conducted in-person interviews with respondents or proxies to determine the weekly hours of care received. We compared hours of assistance received between self-reported stroke survivors (n=892) and demography- and comorbidity-matched nonstroke controls (n=892). The annual cost of stroke caregiving was estimated using reported paid caregiving data and estimates of unpaid caregiving costs. RESULTS—Of community-dwelling elderly stroke survivors, 51.4% received help from a caregiver. Stroke survivors received an average of 10 hours of additional care per week compared with demography- and comorbidity-matched controls (22.3 hours versus 11.8 hours; P
ISSN:0039-2499
1524-4628
DOI:10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.012704