Women who care for elderly relatives experience major stress and often see their careers suffer as a result, new research has found.

As the population ages, an increasing number of people - mainly women - are having to spend time caring for elderly relatives, such as their parents. UK researchers decided to look further into the impact of this by interviewing a number of women about their experiences.

The participants had a range of different academic and administrative jobs and all were also caring for an elderly relative.

"They were highly conscientious employees and reported high levels of stress as they struggled to care for an elder while continuing to carry out their work to their usual high standards," explained Dr Viv Burr and Professor Helen Colley of the University of Huddersfield.

They noted that most of the women tried to fit in their caring duties at the beginning and end of their working day, and usually spent at least one day of the weekend looking after their relative.

"This burden of care was in addition to the work involved in looking after their own homes, and some of the women fell into the ‘sandwich generation', as they also had their own children still living at home," the researchers pointed out.

They found that elderly care was typically very unpredictable. Sudden emergencies were common and the people being cared for often resisted ‘outside' support, such as from social services.

However, aside from the daily stress experienced by the carers, the research also revealed the impact on their careers. Some of those who took part in the study had chosen not to pursue promotions or further qualifications, while some were considering cutting their hours.

Employers also lost out, as they often lost the services of skilled workers for long periods of time.

The researchers called for more flexibility in working arrangements to help retain these workers and to stop them from experiencing burnout.

"Businesses need to recognise societal change in the nature of conditions that demand care, such as early onset dementia, mental health problems and brain injuries. These mean that carers are becoming younger - from their 30s and 40s - and need to pick up their lives again in their 50s," they said.

They now want to extend this research to include the experience of male carers as well.