Green Makenna R, Hughes M Courtney, Afrin Sadia, Vernon Erin
School of Interdisciplinary Health Professions, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA.
Department of Public Health, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA.
J Public Health Policy. 2025 Mar;46(1):22-37. doi: 10.1057/s41271-024-00529-7. Epub 2024 Nov 17.
In the United States, there are nearly 53 million informal or unpaid caregivers, many of whom experience mental and physical stress related to their caregiving duties and increased financial responsibility. We identified federal and state informal caregiver support policies authorized by specific legislation along with their key provisions and conducted a systematic review of the academic literature related to quantitative evaluations of these policies. Twenty policies, eight academic studies, and four gray literature reports were included in the study, with half of the policies introduced since 2000. Our study criteria yielded few academic valuations tied to caregiver policies and few policies including research provisions. Of the provision areas identified in policies, respite services, caregiver training, and workplace protections appeared the most. Future policies and the studies examining them should incorporate cost outcomes and equity as focus areas and disaggregate data by vulnerable groups to ensure value and equity in caregiver support legislation. KEY MESSAGES: Increased legislation to support informal caregivers may be warranted. The limited academic research examining existing caregiver policies identifies mixed outcomes for caregivers. Prioritizing vulnerable populations in such policy research examining outcomes could help improve caregiver support efforts. The included studies investigated the outcomes of three policies and identified more negative than positive outcomes for caregivers.
在美国，有近5300万非正式或无薪护理人员，其中许多人因护理职责而承受身心压力，且经济负担加重。我们确定了由特定立法授权的联邦和州非正式护理人员支持政策及其关键条款，并对与这些政策的定量评估相关的学术文献进行了系统综述。该研究纳入了20项政策、8项学术研究和4份灰色文献报告，其中一半的政策是2000年以后出台的。我们的研究标准显示，与护理人员政策相关的学术评估很少，包含研究条款的政策也很少。在政策确定的条款领域中，喘息服务、护理人员培训和工作场所保护出现得最为频繁。未来的政策以及对其进行研究时，应将成本结果和公平性作为重点领域，并按弱势群体对数据进行分类，以确保护理人员支持立法的价值和公平性。关键信息：可能有必要增加支持非正式护理人员的立法。对现有护理人员政策进行研究的学术研究有限，结果显示护理人员的情况好坏参半。在这类研究结果的政策研究中优先考虑弱势群体，有助于改善对护理人员的支持工作。纳入的研究调查了三项政策的结果，发现对护理人员而言负面结果多于正面结果。
