http://goo.gl/iCJYKk
The study found that almost one-third of the U.S. population are informal caregivers and collectively provide about 1.2 billion hours of unpaid work weekly, the equivalent of about 30.5 million full-time care aides. But the sandwich generation comprises just 3 percent of the population, much less than researchers anticipated.
The researchers were also surprised to find that elderly people were frequently being cared for by spouses, not their adult children. About 20 percent of caregiving time spent on people 80 years or older comes from people of the same age, they found.
'The extent to which spousal care is prevalent at old ages, 70 and 80 years old, was surprising to us,' said lead author Emilio Zagheni, a UW assistant professor of sociology. 'We expected to see more caregiving by adult children of their parents.'
Older men provided slightly more spousal care than women, Zagheni said, which might be explained by men dying earlier, possibly before they need much care, and women living longer but being in poor health at older ages.