Caring Costs Time, Money and Stress

"Four in 10 adults in the U.S. are caring for an adult or child with significant health issues, up from 30 percent in 2010," according to a recent national survey by Pew Research Center. Given our aging population, that number is almost certain to increase, with employers taking a chunk of the burden, at least financially: A 2011 Gallup study says full-time employee absenteeism due to caregiving duties costs employers some $25 billion annually.

What is less obvious is the hidden impact caregiving has on employee health. Byproducts of unrelenting stress, such as depression and poor sleep, and a lack of attention to personal health, including nutrition and exercise or -- as in Heffern's case -- neglecting preventive care, take a toll. Eliza Corporation of Danvers, Mass., a leader in health engagement management, in partnership with Altarum Institute, developed the Vulnerability Index (VI) to help insurers and employers measure how life issues like caregiving, financial troubles or marital problems impact employee health. The Company says the index has three times the predictive power of self-reported health problems than traditional measures.

According to their research, these vulnerability factors make people much more susceptible to chronic conditions such as mental illness, lower back pain and diabetes. Caregiving shows a particularly strong link; caregiving employees are nearly three times more likely to be highly vulnerable to health issues than non-caregivers. The Pew study also showed that caregivers were more likely to have faced a recent health crisis than non-caregivers.

Caregiving measurably impacts employer health costs, too; according to a 2010 study of the MetLife Market Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving, health care costs for caregivers are roughly eight percent more than non-caregiving employees, costing employers an estimated $13.4 billion per year extra.

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