Breaking Silos in Caregiving Research: Toward Unified Measures Across the Lifespan

Kate Perepezko (), Anna Avery, Lauren M. Little, Timothy Dionne and Beth Fields
Additional contact information
Kate Perepezko: Scripps Gerontology Center, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA
Anna Avery: Independent Researcher, Madison, WI 53706, USA
Lauren M. Little: Occupational Therapy, College of Health Sciences, Rush University, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Timothy Dionne: Health Sciences, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Beth Fields: Kinesiology, Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: The number of caregivers is increasing globally making it imperative that we better understand the impact of caregiving and identify methods to address caregiver needs and health. These goals are best achieved with unified research approaches and measures that facilitate comparison across studies. Despite the need and policy support for unified research on caregiving, research often happens in silos that are diagnostic or age specific. To address this need we interviewed 33 researchers who (1) identified process, and outcome measures they commonly used in their research and (2) explained their selection. We found that researchers across the lifespan are using similar measures in their studies and are consistent in what they look for in a measure. Researchers also described barriers they face when selecting measures, including: inadequacy of current measures, familiarity, need for rigor, and measurement characteristics. These findings highlight the need for the creation and dissemination of a prioritized list of process and outcome measures being used by caregiving researchers.

Keywords: caregiving; measurement; lifespan; data harmonization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/11/646/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/11/646/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:11:p:646-:d:1787374

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvaine Sun

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().