From banking to bathing: the mix and shift of caregiving

Family caregivers provide a range of supportive activities, but transitions between these activities over time remain understudied, particularly regarding financial support. We describe the composition of and transitions between caregiving activities such as helping with activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), and financial support.

This retrospective cohort study used nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study to identify adults who reported caregiving consecutively in ≥2 waves from 2002 to 2018 (n = 3,017). We describe the composition and trends in providing financial support, and ADL and IADL assistance, as well as caregiver characteristics and the sequence of caregiving activities.

Caregivers most often provided all three types of assistance (37.7%), followed by both IADL assistance and financial support (21.1%) and IADL assistance only (14.5%). Caregiving was most often initiated with IADLs (35.8%) and financial support (24.7%), and later transitioned to ADL assistance. Financial support remained a consistent caregiving activity throughout caregiving transitions.

Findings provide empirical evidence that individuals often assume caregiving roles gradually with financial support emerging as a key caregiving activity that begins early on and has sustained prevalence. Early identification, greater economic support, and policies are needed to address the full span of caregiving.