UAS-CLEAR is a federally funded research project built to find out who provides unpaid dementia care in the United States, with a specific goal of reaching caregivers that older surveys skipped. The National Institute on Aging funded the project under grant R01AG083097, naming Kira Birditt and Marco Angrisani as lead investigators, with the work running through April 2028, according to the HigherGov grant listing. The project matters to readers managing memory-related care because it directly addresses a gap: most prior caregiving research focused narrowly on spouses and adult children, leaving non-family caregivers and younger caregivers understudied. UAS-CLEAR was designed to sample both family and non-family caregivers of people with and without Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, spanning young adults to older adults, according to the University of Michigan ISR project page.
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Table of Contents
- Where the Data Comes From
- Who Has Been Studied So Far
- Who Was Not Fully Captured Yet
- What Makes This Study Different From Older Surveys
- What This Means for Readers Weighing Their Own Caregiving Situation
- Frequently Asked Questions
Where the Data Comes From
UAS-CLEAR draws its participants from the Understanding America Study, a probability-based, nationally representative internet panel. The panel had about 10,000 members age 18 and older as of the 2026 funding announcement, with plans to grow to 20,000 by 2027, according to USC Dornsife.
That expansion matters because a larger, more representative panel gives researchers a better chance of capturing caregivers who are harder to reach through traditional recruitment, such as non-family caregivers or those caring for someone without a formal dementia diagnosis. USC Dornsife announced $17 million in NIA funding for two new UAS research projects, one of which is specifically aimed at understanding what affects the well-being of caregivers for people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia, according to the same USC Dornsife announcement.
Who Has Been Studied So Far
The first national results from UAS-CLEAR, reported in a December 2025 Innovation in Aging conference abstract, included 2,202 caregivers. The group had a mean age of 50, with ages ranging from 18 to 102, and was 67% women and 56% White. Adult-children and other-family caregivers formed the largest group, while spouse caregivers and non-family caregivers made up smaller segments, according to the Innovation in Aging abstract. Among those 2,202 caregivers, 22% were caring for someone with dementia specifically.
Those dementia caregivers reported greater burden and caregiving intensity, and fewer rewards, than caregivers of people without dementia, according to the same abstract. That distinction is useful for readers trying to gauge whether findings about caregiving in general apply to dementia care specifically — they do not automatically transfer, and this study breaks the two apart. Within the dementia-caregiver subgroup, the burden was not evenly distributed. Spouse caregivers reported the highest burden and caregiving intensity, while non-family caregivers reported the lowest. The study authors flagged younger spousal caregivers of people with dementia as the group facing the greatest risk, according to the abstract.
Who Was Not Fully Captured Yet
The published results come from a conference abstract rather than a peer-reviewed full paper. That abstract does not report the exact share of caregivers who are spouses versus other relationship types, so the full relationship breakdown is not yet publicly documented, according to the Innovation in Aging abstract.
For a reader trying to figure out whether their own caregiving situation — spouse, adult child, friend, paid non-family caregiver — is well represented in the data, that gap matters. The 22% dementia-caregiver subgroup is identified, but the precise count of spouse caregivers within it has not been released in a form the public can check yet.
What Makes This Study Different From Older Surveys
Most prior caregiving surveys relied on a single retrospective questionnaire, asking people to look back and summarize how caregiving has felt. UAS-CLEAR adds ecological momentary assessment, a method of sending caregivers repeated short surveys in real time, paired with wearable devices that track physiological signals throughout the day, according to the University of Michigan ISR project page.
This design change is relevant to readers because it means future UAS-CLEAR findings may describe moment-to-moment stress and physical strain, not just a caregiver's overall recollection months later. That distinction can affect how useful the research is for spotting early warning signs of caregiver burnout, since real-time data can catch patterns a retrospective survey would miss.
What This Means for Readers Weighing Their Own Caregiving Situation
Readers who are spouses caring for a partner with dementia should note that this group was identified in the data as carrying the highest burden and intensity among dementia caregivers, and younger spousal caregivers in particular were flagged as most at risk, according to the Innovation in Aging abstract. That is a signal worth taking seriously when deciding how much outside support — respite care, counseling, or help from other family members — to bring in early rather than later. A few practical takeaways for interpreting this research as it develops:.
- The 2,202-caregiver sample is a first look, not a final peer-reviewed result — treat percentages as provisional until a full paper is published.
- Non-family caregivers are included in the sampling design, so findings should eventually speak to paid or informal caregivers outside the family, not just relatives.
- The study runs through April 2028, meaning updated findings on burden, intensity, and well-being are expected to continue arriving over the next two years, according to the HigherGov grant listing.
- Readers caring for someone without a formal ADRD diagnosis are also part of the comparison group, which should eventually let the study show how dementia caregiving differs from other kinds of caregiving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is UAS-CLEAR peer-reviewed yet?
Not fully. The 2,202-caregiver results so far come from a December 2025 conference abstract, not a peer-reviewed journal paper.
Does UAS-CLEAR include caregivers who aren't family members?
Yes. The study was designed to sample both family and non-family caregivers, not just spouses and adult children.
How long will UAS-CLEAR keep collecting data?
The NIA grant funding the project runs through April 30, 2028.
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