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

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.