IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i21p14496-d963703.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Caregiving Situation as a Predictor of Subjective Caregiver Burden: Informal Caregivers of Older Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Simona Hvalič-Touzery

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva Ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • Marina Trkman

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva Ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • Vesna Dolničar

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva Ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created and exacerbated emotional, financial, and technical challenges for informal caregivers of older people. The aim of this study was to explore the caregiving situation and subjective burden of informal caregivers of older family members during COVID-19, and to investigate how a caregiving situation’s characteristics predict the subjective burden of care in times of COVID-19. The study was conducted in April and May 2021 via an online access panel. The sample (n = 612) was determined using a screening test that enabled us to focus on a Slovenian population of informal caregivers aged 40+ caring for a person aged 65+ for at least four hours/week on average. Our findings reveal that the subjective burden of care was high among informal caregivers during COVID-19. Multiple regression analysis showed that the provision of activities of daily living, care duration, average hours of care per week, formal care status, and recipients’ health problems related to dementia or other memory problems significantly predicted the subjective burden of caregivers. These findings call for better recognition of the role of informal caregivers. The time and effort devoted to informal care should be supported by legislation and social security.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14496-:d:963703
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14496/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14496/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clemens Tesch-Römer & Giovanni Lamura, 2021. "Older adults in the first wave of the Corona pandemic," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 145-147, June.
    2. Lidia Farré & Yarine Fawaz & Libertad González Luna & Jennifer Graves, 2020. "How the covid-19 lockdown affected gender Inequality in paid and unpaid work in Spain," Economics Working Papers 1728, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    3. 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.
    4. Eileen Rocard & Ana Llena-Nozal, 2022. "Supporting informal carers of older people: Policies to leave no carer behind," OECD Health Working Papers 140, OECD Publishing.
    5. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Claudia Hupkau & Barbara Petrongolo, 2020. "Work, Care and Gender during the COVID‐19 Crisis," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 623-651, September.
    3. Tiberiu Constantin Ionescu & Bogdana Ioana Fetecau & Stefan Zaharia & Elma-Maria Mînecan & Catalina Tudose, 2023. "Sleepless Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Insomnia Symptoms among Professionally Active Romanians during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Sonia OREFICCE & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2021. "Gender inequality in COVID-19 times: evidence from UK prolific participants," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 261-287, June.
    5. Daniela Del Boca & Noemi Oggero & Paola Profeta & Maria Cristina Rossi, 2021. "Did COVID-19 Affect the Division of Labor within the Household? Evidence from Two Waves of the Pandemic in Italy," Working Papers 2021-043, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    6. Ana Tribin & Karen García-Rojas & Paula Herrera-Idarraga & Leonardo Fabio Morales & Natalia Ramirez-Bustamante, 2023. "Shecession: The Downfall of Colombian Women During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 158-193, October.
    7. repec:hal:journl:hal-03627187 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2020. "The Fall in Income Inequality during COVID-19 in Five European Countries," Working Papers 565, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    9. Abel Brodeur & David Gray & Anik Islam & Suraiya Bhuiyan, 2021. "A literature review of the economics of COVID‐19," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1007-1044, September.
    10. Ayllón, Sara, 2022. "Online teaching and gender bias," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Fukai, Taiyo & Ikeda, Masato & Kawaguchi, Daiji & Yamaguchi, Shintaro, 2023. "COVID-19 and the employment gender gap in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2022. "Inequalities in the times of a pandemic," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 5-41.
    13. Thorsten Kneip & Axel Börsch-Supan & Karen Andersen-Ranberg, 2022. "Social, health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from a European perspective," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 789-792, December.
    14. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur, 2021. "The fall in income inequality during COVID-19 in four European countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 489-507, September.
    15. Cecilia Obeng & Mary Slaughter & Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi, 2022. "Childcare Issues and the Pandemic: Working Women’s Experiences in the Face of COVID-19," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-11, July.
    16. Andrew E. Clark & Anthony Lepinteur, 2022. "Pandemic Policy and Life Satisfaction in Europe," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(2), pages 393-408, June.
    17. Cristina Lafuente & Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis & Ludo Visschers, 2022. "Temping fates in Spain: hours and employment in a dual labor market during the Great Recession and COVID-19," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 101-145, May.
    18. Petrongolo, Barbara & Hupkau, Claudia, 2020. "Work, care and gender during the Covid-19 crisis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108463, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Illing, Hannah & Oberfichtner, Michael & Pestel, Nico & Schmieder, Johannes F. & Trenkle, Simon, 2022. "Geschlechtsspezifische Arbeitsmarktwirkung der Covid-19-Pandemie," IZA Standpunkte 102, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Boca Daniela del & Oggero Noemi & Profeta Paola & Rossi Maria Cristina, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on the gender division of housework and childcare: Evidence from two waves of the pandemic in Italy," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    21. Michael Cary & Heather Stephens, 2023. "Gendered Consequences of COVID-19 Among Professional Tennis Players," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(2), pages 241-266, February.

    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:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14496-:d:963703. 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.