Ng, C.

Background: Caregivers provide critical support for patients with chronic diseases, including heart disease, but often experience caregiver stress that negatively impacts their health, quality of life, and patient outcomes. Objectives: We aimed to inform health care teams on an evidence-based approach to supporting the caregivers of patients with heart disease.

he objective of this study was to estimate the annual costs and consequences of unpaid caregiving by Canadians from a government perspective. We estimated these costs both at the individual and population levels for caregivers aged 45 and older. We conducted a cost-benefit analysis where we considered the costs of unpaid caregiving to be potential losses in income tax revenues and changes in social assistance payments and the potential benefit of reduced paid care expenditures.