Among all of the cases of at-home elderly nursing care, households in which both caregivers and care recipients are aged 65 or older account for as much as about 60%, according to a survey released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Friday.
The Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions is conducted once every three years to ascertain the situation of at-home elderly nursing care. The latest survey, which was conducted in June last year, found that households in which caregivers cohabitate with care recipients account for 54% of all cases, a 17-percentage-point decrease from the 71% reported in 2001.
Of them, cases in which both the caregivers and care recipients are aged 65 or older accounted for 59.7%, an increase of five percentage points from the previous survey conducted in 2016. Households in which the person requiring care and the caregiver are both aged 75 or older accounted for 33.1% of all cases. Both figures are the highest since the survey was first conducted in 2001.
"With trends accelerating toward nuclear families, the number of cases of an elderly person caring for another elderly person has been increasing, and the number of cases of children looking after their elderly parents while living in separate homes is also increasing," a ministry official said.
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