IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i24p9531-d464955.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Many Older Informal Caregivers Are There in Europe? Comparison of Estimates of Their Prevalence from Three European Surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Aviad Tur-Sinai

    (Department of Health Systems Management, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, 1930600 Yezreel Valley, Israel
    School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642-8404, USA)

  • Andrea Teti

    (Institute for Gerontology, University of Vechta, D-49377 Vechta, Germany)

  • Alexander Rommel

    (Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, 10439 Berlin, Germany)

  • Valentina Hlebec

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • Giovanni Lamura

    (INRCA IRCCS—National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, 60124 Ancona, Italy)

Abstract

Informal caregivers are people providing some type of unpaid, ongoing assistance to a person 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Aviad Tur-Sinai & Andrea Teti & Alexander Rommel & Valentina Hlebec & Giovanni Lamura, 2020. "How Many Older Informal Caregivers Are There in Europe? Comparison of Estimates of Their Prevalence from Three European Surveys," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9531-:d:464955
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9531/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9531/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicola Ciccarelli & Arthur Soest, 2018. "Informal Caregiving, Employment Status and Work Hours of the 50+ Population in Europe," De Economist, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 363-396, September.
    2. Aviad Tur-Sinai & Noah Lewin-Epstein, 2020. "Transitions in Giving and Receiving Intergenerational Financial Support in Middle and Old Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 765-791, August.
    3. Kaschowitz, Judith & Brandt, Martina, 2017. "Health effects of informal caregiving across Europe: A longitudinal approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 72-80.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sara Santini & Marco Socci & Paolo Fabbietti & Giovanni Lamura & Andrea Teti, 2022. "Factors Worsening and Mitigating the Consequences of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Overall Health of Informal Caregivers of Older People with Long-Term Care Needs Living in Germany and in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-21, February.
    2. László Árpád Kostyál & Zsuzsa Széman & Virág Erzsébet Almási & Paolo Fabbietti & Sabrina Quattrini & Marco Socci & Cristina Gagliardi, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Health and Experience of the Carers of Older Family Members Living with Dementia: An Italian–Hungarian Comparative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-29, April.
    3. Kieren J. Egan & William Hodgson & Gennaro Imperatore & Mark D. Dunlop & Roma Maguire & Alison Kirk, 2022. "Supporting Physical Activity for Informal Caregivers during and beyond COVID-19: Exploring the Feasibility, Usability and Acceptability of a Digital Health Smartphone Application, ‘CareFit’," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    4. Simona Hvalič-Touzery & Marina Trkman & Vesna Dolničar, 2022. "Caregiving Situation as a Predictor of Subjective Caregiver Burden: Informal Caregivers of Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Cristina Gagliardi & Giovanni Lamura, 2021. "Special Issue on “Advances in Socio-Economic Research on Ageing”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-6, June.
    6. Mohan R. Tanniru & Nimit Agarwal & Amanda Sokan & Salim Hariri, 2021. "An Agile Digital Platform to Support Population Health—A Case Study of a Digital Platform to Support Patients with Delirium Using IoT, NLP, and AI," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Qi Guo & Aurea Grané & Irene Albarrán, 2023. "A Global Indicator to Track Well-Being in the Silver and Golden Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 1057-1086, October.
    8. Maria Gabriella Melchiorre & Sabrina Quattrini & Giovanni Lamura & Marco Socci, 2022. "Role and Characteristics of Personal Care Assistants of Frail Older People with Functional Limitations Ageing in Place in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-25, March.
    9. Val Morrison & Mikołaj Zarzycki & Noa Vilchinsky & Robbert Sanderman & Giovanni Lamura & Oliver Fisher & Giulia Ferraris & Saif Elayan & Erik Buskens & Eva Bei & Anne Looijmans & Viola Angelini & Mari, 2022. "A Multinational Longitudinal Study Incorporating Intensive Methods to Examine Caregiver Experiences in the Context of Chronic Health Conditions: Protocol of the ENTWINE-iCohort," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Maria Gabriella Melchiorre & Sabrina Quattrini & Giovanni Lamura & Marco Socci, 2021. "A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Care Arrangements of Older People with Limited Physical Abilities Living Alone in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-35, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Longobardo, Luz María Peña & Rodríguez-Sánchez, Beatriz & Oliva, Juan, 2023. "Does becoming an informal caregiver make your health worse? A longitudinal analysis across Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. Eibich, Peter, 2023. "Instrumental variable estimates of the burden of parental caregiving," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    3. Norma B. Coe & Jing Guo & R. Tamara Konetzka & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2019. "What is the marginal benefit of payment‐induced family care? Impact on Medicaid spending and health of care recipients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 678-692, May.
    4. Aviad Tur-Sinai & Harald Künemund & Claudia Vogel, 2022. "Inheritances and work for pay — will the expected wave of bequests undermine active ageing policies?," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1251-1261, December.
    5. Laia Calvó-Perxas & Joan Vilalta-Franch & Howard Litwin & Oriol Turró-Garriga & Pedro Mira & Josep Garre-Olmo, 2018. "What seems to matter in public policy and the health of informal caregivers? A cross-sectional study in 12 European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Stampini, Marco & Oliveri, María Laura & Ibarrarán, Pablo & Londoño, Diana & Rhee, Ho June (Sean) & James, Gillinda M., 2020. "Working Less to Take Care of Parents? Labor Market Effects of Family Long-Term Care in Four Latin American Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 13792, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Rellstab, Sara & Bakx, Pieter & García-Gómez, Pilar & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2020. "The kids are alright - labour market effects of unexpected parental hospitalisations in the Netherlands," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Estrada Fernández, Mª Eugenia & Gil Lacruz, Ana I. & Gil Lacruz, Marta & Viñas López, Antonio, 2019. "Informal care. European situation and approximation of a reality," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(12), pages 1163-1172.
    9. Bom, Judith & Stöckel, Jannis, 2021. "Is the grass greener on the other side? The health impact of providing informal care in the UK and the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    10. Ana Catarina Maia & Paulo Nogueira & Maria Adriana Henriques & Carla Farinha & Andreia Costa, 2022. "Ageing and Long-Term Informal Care: The Reality of Two Countries in Europe: Denmark and Portugal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-20, August.
    11. Bram Hogendoorn & Juho Härkönen, 2023. "Single Motherhood and Multigenerational Coresidence in Europe," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 105-133, March.
    12. Elisa Labbas & Maria Stanfors, 2023. "Does Caring for Parents Take Its Toll? Gender Differences in Caregiving Intensity, Coresidence, and Psychological Well-Being Across Europe," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-29, December.
    13. Gijs Dekkers & Karel Van den Bosch & Mikkel Barslund & Tanja Kirn & Nicolas Baumann & Nataša Kump & Philippe Liégeois & Amílcar Moreira & Nada Stropnik, 2022. "How Do Gendered Labour Market Trends and the Pay Gap Translate into the Projected Gender Pension Gap? A Comparative Analysis of Five Countries with Low, Middle and High GPGs," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-26, July.
    14. Jingyi Ai & Jin Feng & Yangyang Yu, 2022. "Elderly Care Provision and the Impact on Caregiver Health in China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(5), pages 206-226, September.
    15. Aviad Tur-Sinai & Dafna Halperin & Nissim Ben David & Ariela Lowenstein & Ruth Katz, 2022. "Cessation of Care for Frail Older Adults: Physical, Psychological and Economic Outcomes for Family Carers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-17, March.
    16. Mohan R. Tanniru & Nimit Agarwal & Amanda Sokan & Salim Hariri, 2021. "An Agile Digital Platform to Support Population Health—A Case Study of a Digital Platform to Support Patients with Delirium Using IoT, NLP, and AI," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-22, May.
    17. María J. Mendoza-Jiménez & Job Exel & Werner Brouwer, 2024. "On spillovers in economic evaluations: definition, mapping review and research agenda," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 25(7), pages 1239-1260, September.
    18. Mozhaeva, Irina, 2021. "Informal caregiving and work: A high price to pay. The case of Baltic States," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    19. Tami Saito & Naoki Kondo & Koichiro Shiba & Chiyoe Murata & Katsunori Kondo, 2018. "Income-based inequalities in caregiving time and depressive symptoms among older family caregivers under the Japanese long-term care insurance system: A cross-sectional analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, March.
    20. Katja Möhring & Sabine Zinn & Ulrike Ehrlich, 2023. "Family care during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Germany: longitudinal evidence on consequences for the well-being of caregivers," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9531-:d:464955. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.