Unpaid caregivers—family members and friends who step in to help when someone needs assistance due to health issues—are themselves at risk for poor health, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control.

The study, which spanned the years 2015–2017, found that while approximately 17.7 million people act as informal, unpaid caregivers, they pay for doing so in terms of their own health. In fact, 19.2 percent of informal, unpaid caregivers reported being in fair or poor health.

Caregivers are subject to a number of pressures that take a toll on their own well-being, according to the study, including the extra hours involved and money spent out of their own pockets to cover expenses that may not be covered for their recipients by other means—from groceries to medications.

In addition, many caregivers end up curtailing hours at work or even leaving work altogether to provide care, regardless of what such actions end up costing them in current and future income—even during their own retirements.

And that doesn't even begin to count the emotional toll when caring for a relative or friend who is extremely ill or dying. Yet there's little support, either financially or otherwise, for informal caregivers.

Talking to U.S. News about the study's findings, Dr. Teresa Murray Amato, director of geriatric emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York City, said, "As the population of America ages and the number of older adults with diseases such as Alzheimer's continue to grow, there concomitantly has been a growth in the number of non-paid, informal caregivers."

Amato added, "Although the report did not identify the drivers of this finding, it is not hard to understand that trying to balance work, family responsibilities and caring for an older adult could at the very least cause increased stress and also lead to lack of personal time to attend to one's health issues."

According to the report, 58 percent of such caregivers are women, with the majority non-Hispanic whites with some college education and either married or living with a partner. Most caregivers were younger than 45 years of age, it adds. In addition, according to the study, the states with the most unpaid caregivers—in each of which more than 25 percent of respondents identified themselves as caregivers—were Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Caregivers' poor health is also contributing to an already overburdened health care system, as those they care for find themselves in long-term care arrangements sooner than expected.

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Poor health affects nearly 20 percent of caregivers

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