How many older informal caregivers are there in Europe? : comparison of estimates of their prevalence from three European surveys

Tur-Sinai, Aviad (author), Teti, Andrea (author), Rommel, Alexander (author), Hlebec, Valentina (author), Lamura, Giovanni (author)

Informal caregivers are people providing some type of unpaid, ongoing assistance to aperson with a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care measures and policies cannot take place without taking into account the quantitatively crucial role played by informal caregivers. We use the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), and the Study on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE) to measure the prevalence of informal caregivers in the European population, and analyze associated socio-demographic factors. This rate ranges between about 13 percent in Portugal and Spain, and more than 22 percent in Luxembourg, Belgium, and Denmark. It declines in older age groups and, on average, is lower in men than in women in all countries studied, and lower among the poorly educated compared to those with higher levels of education. However, large variance was observed in the average share of informal caregivers for most countries between the three surveys. Our findings, estimated through the three surveys, reveal common trends, but also a series of disparities. Additional research will be needed to enable policy makers to access a richer and more harmonized body of data, allowing them to adopt truly evidence-based and targeted policies and interventions in this field.

• Language: English
• Keywords: informal caregiver, survey, harmonization, unpaid care
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: 17 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 17, iss. 24, art. 9531
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-134693
• UDC: 364
• ISSN on article: 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17249531
• COBISS.SI-ID: 43714819
• Publication date in RUL: 26.01.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of environmental research and public health
• Shortened title: Int. j. environ. res. public health
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1660-4601
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1818965

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 19.12.2020

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: neformalna oskrba, neformalni oskrbovalci, starejši, demografski podatki, Evropa

Projects

• Funder: Other - Other funder or multiple funders
• Funding programme: Italian Ministry of Health, Ricerca Corrente