Evolution of shared care networks by race and ethnicity: findings from the National Health and Aging Trends Study

The aging population in the United States is increasingly diverse, particularly among community-dwelling individuals with disabilities. Black and Hispanic older adults experience greater reliance on assistance with daily activities (e.g., bathing, shopping, banking) than White adults. Assistance is often provided by multiple caregivers helping with the same tasks ("role-sharing"). We describe patterns of shared care by examining racial and ethnic differences in role-sharing in 2015 and 2022.

We use weighted, repeated cross-sectional data from the 2015 and 2022 National Health and Aging Trends Study, focusing on Black, White, and Hispanic community-dwelling care recipients (n = 3,050 in 2015; n = 2,318 in 2022) who receive assistance with household (e.g., shopping), self-care (e.g., bathing, dressing), mobility (e.g., getting around indoors), or medical activities (e.g., medication management) due to health or functioning limitations. Logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations assessed race differences in experiencing role-sharing, adjusting for older adult characteristics and survey year.

Role-sharing was most common in the household assistance domain, with approximately 30% of all groups reporting role-sharing in both years. In fully adjusted models, Hispanic recipients experienced lower odds of role-sharing for household tasks (OR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.57-0.91) compared to White care recipients. Racial and ethnic differences were not observed in other care domains, and role-sharing prevalence was consistent in 2015 and 2022.

Findings underscore the complexity of caregiving networks and inform strategies to improve collaboration and reduce role ambiguity among role-sharing caregivers.