Older women get less home care than men

CHICAGO (Reuters) -- Caring for the elderly most often falls to women, some of them older women acting as caregivers for their disabled husbands despite needing help themselves, researchers said Tuesday.

A survey of 7,443 Americans aged 70 and older found women received fewer hours of informal home care than men, and the disparity was even greater among married disabled women who were often called upon to help their frail husbands with dressing, eating or other tasks.

Even healthy men in the study were less prepared to fulfill the social role of caregiver, the report published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association said.

Only 11 percent of disabled women reported any informal care from a spouse, compared with 44 percent of the disabled men, the report said.

Disabled women were better off than men when it came to receiving care from children or grandchildren. Four out of five of the younger caregivers were women.

"Because disabled elderly women rely heavily on children for support, especially female children, the family burden and stress associated with caring for a disabled woman should be the subject of further study," study author Steven Katz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor wrote.

Because women live longer than men and generally have less net worth, they are more likely to need unpaid care to cope with disabilities associated with aging and chronic disease, the report said.

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