Center Reports
Back to Center Reports 

Effects of COVID-19 on Family Caregivers
A Community Survey from the University of Pittsburgh

July 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions to society, with major impacts on employment, financial well-being and social relationships. The specific effects on family caregivers is unknown. Decades of research on family caregiving has shown that long-term and complex caregiving tasks often result in chronic stress for family caregivers which can lead to negative health outcomes for both the caregiver and care recipient. The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to add to the complexity of caregiving given the stay-at-home requirements, reduced access to health care services, and the vulnerability of individuals at higher risk for severe side effects.

A team of researchers from the University Center for Social and Urban Research and the National Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support at the University of Pittsburgh set out to identify the specific effects of the pandemic on families. This report highlights the effects of COVID-19 on family caregivers. These results can inform the work of practitioners and policy makers as they design programs to help family caregivers and care recipients cope with this serious public health crisis and its aftermath.

Our Survey

The survey was disseminated through a local area research registry, national disability and caregiving-related organizations, and a small-sample telephone survey of previously identified Pittsburgh area caregivers between April 15 and May 27, 2020. Responses were received from

• 619 family caregivers
• 2,933 noncaregivers

The survey assessed the impacts of the pandemic on employment, financial well-being, social interactions, health behaviors, and physical and mental health.

Full Report

Executive Summary

The following set of files (PDF format) present the survey questionnaire for the study and a file that includes detailed question-by-question results of the survey.

Each file contains both a navigation pane and clickable hyperlinks in the table of contents to allow for efficient searching by survey topic area.  

  Survey Questionnaire

  Data Tables