Disabled Elderly Women Receive Less Home Care than Men.

2001 JAN 11 - (NewsRx.com) -- Disabled elderly women living in the community receive about one-third fewer hours of informal home care than their male counterparts, and many disabled, elderly, married women serve as caregivers to their spouses, according to an article in the December 20, 2000, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Steven J. Katz, MD, MPH, and colleagues from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, analyzed data from a nationally representative survey in the U.S. conducted at the University of Michigan in 1993 to determine sex differences in receipt of informal (generally unpaid) and formal (generally paid) home care. A total of 4,538 women and 2,905 men aged 70 years and older took part in the survey. None of the study participants lived in institutions.

The study sample included 3,109 respondents who were disabled, defined as reporting that during the prior month they had difficulty or were receiving help with at least one activity of daily living (ADL), such as eating or bathing, or with an instrumental activity of daily living (IADL), such as taking medication, or preparing meals.

Projected demographic shifts in the U.S. population over the next 50 years are expected to result in a marked increase in the number of elderly people living in the community who must cope each day with disabilities associated with aging and chronic disease, Katz et al. said. Women make up a disproportionate number of disabled elderly people in the community because they live longer than men.

Disabled women living in the community may be particularly vulnerable to unmet needs because many of them live alone with limited resources. Even disabled women in married households may be vulnerable to unmet needs because they may be more likely than men to be in a caregiver role themselves.

The authors reported that the disabled elderly women they surveyed were more likely than men to be living alone (45.4%, compared with 16.8% of men living alone). Women were much less likely to be living with a spouse (27.8%, compared with 73.6% of men living with spouses). The women were also older, reported less net worth than men, and received less informal care. ...