The immense pressures placed on Irish women aged between 50 and 69 have been revealed in a new report.

According to the findings, many are providing care to both their elderly parents and dependent children and this is having a major effect on their mental and physical health.

The report, which is based on findings from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), an ongoing study of over 8,000 people aged 50 and older, refers to these women as the ‘sandwich generation', as they are supporting two generations.

The research shows that the women are providing both financial and non-financial support to their parents and younger, dependent children. In some cases, they are also providing support to non-dependent children and grandchildren.

In fact, almost six in 10 women aged 50-69 provide help to their parents, at least eight in 10 give help to their children and one in three look after their grandchildren for an average of 34 hours per month.

Furthermore, almost half of these women are providing all of this support while still working themselves.

When it comes to supporting their parents, half of women aged 50-69 provide substantial amounts of their time, while one-third help with basic care, such as dressing and bathing, for an average of 21 hours per week.

Almost one in 10 also provide financial support to their parents, with the average amount being €2,000 in the last two years.

Meanwhile, one in three of the sandwich generation also provide practical household help to their adult children who are not dependent on them and do not live with them, for an average of 12 hours per month. This includes doing household chores and shopping for groceries.

The report noted that women who provided financial support to their children reported improved health, but those who provided financial support to their parents were more likely to report depression. Providing practical household help to children was also linked to depression.

"The impact of financial giving on mental health could be the result of a number of different factors. We found that women who gave financial help to their parents were twice as likely to also provide personal care, like dressing, bathing and feeding their parents. Thus the depression experienced by these women may reflect both the financial strain and the stress of informal caring for parents," explained the report's lead author, Dr Christine McGarrigle of TILDA.

She said that alternatively, depression could be associated with a ‘reduction in savings as a result of the need to provide financial support to parents, and subsequent worry among the sandwich generation women about their ability to provide for themselves and both their parents and children in the future'.

Meanwhile, according to TILDA principal investigator, Prof Rose Anne Kenny of Trinity College Dublin, a major challenge facing public health in Ireland ‘will be the burgeoning ageing population and the increasing demands on the middle generation for both financial and informal care which may lead to an increasing negative impact on health'.

"The provision of advice and support for sandwich generation women on how to plan, financially, and otherwise, for dual caring in the future may offset some of these negative effects on health," she added.