Working-age women who care for elderly parents risk of later poverty.

2004 SEP 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Taking on the role of caregiver earlier in life can worsen women's economic well-being later in life, according to a study by sociologists at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Using data from the 1992 and 2000 Health and Retirement Study, the researchers analyzed the long-term financial effects of caring for elderly parents.

"If women assumed caregiver roles, they were 2.5 times more likely than non-caregivers to live in poverty and five times more likely to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI)," wrote Katharine Donato and Chizuko Wakabayashi in a paper presented on August 14, 2004, at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Donato is an associate professor of sociology at Rice; Wakabayashi is a Rice sociology postdoctoral student who has received funding from Houston Endowment Inc. to work on the Houston Area Survey.

Public and private agencies have sought ways to lower costs by shifting the burden of elder care to families. As a result, approximately 80% of elder care is now provided by family members, mostly women.

"The potential economic and social consequences of informal elder care for these women may be enormous," said Donato, noting that approximately 45% of females who are 18 or older are not currently married, and many simultaneously assume both roles as earners and caregivers.

The time spent taking care of elderly parents is likely to compete with women's employment opportunities, creating losses in working hours and earnings. The cumulative effect of this scenario contributes to elderly women's disproportionately higher risk of living in poverty. In 2002, 14% of women who are 75 or older lived in poverty, but only 8% of comparably aged men lived in poverty.