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The Disease Burden of Family Caregivers: an Overlooked Public Health Crisis

Bethany Griffiths
Aug 26
3 min read

Family caregivers are the enormous, largely invisible healthcare workforce that nobody talks about. 


According to the 2025 AARP/National Alliance for Caregiving report, about 63 million Americans (nearly 1 in 4 adults) are family caregivers, with about 59 million of those providing care to adults. In 2024, adult family caregivers provided an estimated 49.5 billion hours of care, which would be worth approximately $1.01 trillion in paid labor. Adult caregivers now spend an average of around 27 hours per week providing care. 


We depend on family caregivers to keep people with chronic illness, disability and age-related needs living safely at home, yet we rarely think of the caregiver as someone whose health also needs protecting.


What is ‘caregiver burden’?


This isn't simply being tired from helping someone.


Family caregivers may be responsible for:

  • bathing, dressing and mobility

  • transportation and appointments

  • medication management

  • wound care, injections or medical equipment

  • communicating with multiple healthcare providers

  • finances and insurance

  • emotional support

  • nighttime supervision


More than 40% of caregivers provide high-intensity care, including complex medical tasks, yet most do not receive formal medical training. This is despite the fact that, according to the 2025 report, only 22% of caregivers received formal training.


Therefore, we can describe the term ‘caregiver burden’ as the combined physical, emotional, social and financial strain created by these responsibilities.



The health consequences


Physical health

The CDC identifies caregiving as a public health concern and reports that nearly 1 in 5 caregivers describes their health as fair or poor. It also notes that caregivers may neglect their own healthcare needs, increasing their risk of living with multiple chronic conditions.

Chronic stress, disrupted sleep, reduced physical activity and delayed preventive care can create conditions in which caregivers' own health deteriorates.


Sleep

A systematic review of adult family caregivers found reports of poor sleep quality in up to 76% of caregivers, including shortened sleep and frequent nighttime awakenings.


Mental health

Caregiver burden is strongly associated with anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion and poorer quality of life. 


For dementia caregiving specifically, the CDC says caregivers are at greater risk of anxiety, depression and poorer quality of life than other caregivers.



The financial burden becomes a health burden 

According to the 2025 Caregiving in the U.S. study, around half of caregivers report a negative financial impact from caregiving, with many caregivers taking on debt, reporting difficulty affording basic necessities such as food, and experiencing frequent disruptions to their work if they are simultaneously employed.


This financial stress can make it even harder for caregivers to afford their own healthcare, take time off for appointments, eat well, or maintain stable housing and employment.

Hence, the financial burden becomes a health burden.




Why this is a public-health problem, not just a family problem

Family caregiving is often treated as a private responsibility, but its impact extends far beyond individual households. The healthcare system depends heavily on the millions of people that provide unpaid care for relatives, yet when caregivers become exhausted, financially strained or unwell themselves, the consequences are unmistakable: missed medical appointments, poorer management of chronic conditions, and increased healthcare needs for both the caregiver and the person receiving care.

This makes caregiver health a public-health issue, and indeed the CDC recognizes caregiving as an important public-health concern, particularly as the population ages and more people live with chronic disease. 


What can healthcare providers do to help? 

Healthcare providers can support caregivers through preventive healthcare, mental health support, education, and access to community resources. This certainly makes caregiving easier, but it can also help protect the health of entire families and strengthen the wider system of care.


Here are some of the ways that healthcare providers can support caregivers:

  • Ask patients whether they are caregivers.

  • Screen for depression, anxiety, sleep problems and chronic stress.

  • Make sure caregivers are keeping up with their own physicals, blood pressure checks, labs, vaccinations and preventive screenings.

  • Ask whether caregiving is interfering with medications, meals, sleep or exercise.

  • Connect families with respite care, support groups, aging agencies and community resources.

  • Encourage caregivers to share responsibilities instead of waiting until burnout becomes a health crisis.

  • Provide education when caregivers are being asked to perform medical tasks at home.


Closing thoughts

Healthcare systems routinely monitor the health of the person receiving care. The person coordinating medications, losing sleep, missing work and making that care possible may remain almost invisible, even as the demands of caregiving begin to affect their own health and wellbeing.


Supporting a caregiver is not separate from caring for the patient. In many families, protecting the caregiver's health is what keeps the entire care system functioning.


Sources: 


CDC on Caregiving as a Public Health Strategy https://www.cdc.gov/caregiving/php/public-health-strategy/index.html 


AARP - The Economic Value of Family Caregiving, 2026 Update https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/ltss/family-caregiving/valuing-the-invaluable-2026-update/ 


 
 
 

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