IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i10p5349-d552107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socio-Economic Predictors of Hiring Live-In Migrant Care Workers to Support Community Dwelling Older Adults with Long-Term Care Needs: Recent Evidence from a Central Italian Region

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver Fisher

    (Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, IRCCS INRCA-National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, 60124 Ancona, Italy
    Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60121 Ancona, Italy)

  • Paolo Fabbietti

    (Unit of Geriatric Pharmacoepidemiology, IRCCS INRCA-National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, 60124 Ancona, Italy)

  • Giovanni Lamura

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

Abstract

To meet the rising demand for home care, many families in Italy hire live-in migrant care workers (MCWs). However, the reliance on MCWs to provide long-term care (LTC) and a lack of alternative formal care services raises concerns around equality in access to care. This study aimed to determine the socio-economic predictors of hiring live-in MCWs among older adults with LTC needs in Italy, the objective care burden placed on MCWs, and the financial barriers that people in need of care and informal caregivers face when hiring MCWs, analysing data from a cross-sectional questionnaire with 366 older adults with LTC needs and their primary family caregivers living in the Marche region. Binary logistic regression was used to calculate the predictors of hiring a live-in MCW. Having a primary caregiver that had a high school education or above significantly increased the odds of hiring a live-in MCW (Odds Ratio (OR) = 3.880), as did receiving a social pension (OR = 2.258). Over half (57.5 percent) of the people in need of care had difficulties in affording the costs of hiring an MCW in the past year. To increase the sustainability of the Italian MCW market and reduce socio-economic barriers to accessing care, the Italian Government should increase funding for LTC benefits and add means testing and restrictions on the use of cash-for-care allowances.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver Fisher & Paolo Fabbietti & Giovanni Lamura, 2021. "Socio-Economic Predictors of Hiring Live-In Migrant Care Workers to Support Community Dwelling Older Adults with Long-Term Care Needs: Recent Evidence from a Central Italian Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5349-:d:552107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5349/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5349/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesco Barbabella & Carlos Chiatti & Joseph M. Rimland & Maria Gabriella Melchiorre & Giovanni Lamura & Fabrizia Lattanzio, 2016. "Socioeconomic Predictors of the Employment of Migrant Care Workers by Italian Families Assisting Older Alzheimer’s Disease Patients: Evidence From the Up-Tech Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 71(3), pages 514-525.
    2. Paolo Boccagni, 2018. "At home in home care? Contents and boundaries of the ‘domestic’ among immigrant live-in workers in Italy," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 813-831, July.
    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.
    4. Bom, Judith & Bakx, Pieter & Schut, Frederik & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2019. "Health effects of caring for and about parents and spouses," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    5. World Health Organization & World Bank Group & OECD, 2018. "Delivering Quality Health Services," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 29970.
    6. Rie Miyazaki, 2019. "Migrant care workers and care-migration policies: a comparison between Italy and Japan," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 161-177, June.
    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 & Matteo Finco & Flavia Galassi, 2022. "Education and Employment of Refugees and Migrants in the Formal Elderly Healthcare Sector: Results from an Online Survey in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Maria Gabriella Melchiorre & Marco Socci & Sabrina Quattrini & Giovanni Lamura & Barbara D’Amen, 2022. "Frail Older People Ageing in Place in Italy: Use of Health Services and Relationship with General Practitioner," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-26, July.
    3. 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.

    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. Oliver Fisher, 2021. "The Impact of Micro and Macro Level Factors on the Working and Living Conditions of Migrant Care Workers in Italy and Israel—A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-33, January.
    2. 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).
    3. 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).
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Zueras, Pilar & Grundy, Emily, 2024. "Assessing the impact of caregiving for older parents on caregivers' health: Initial health status and trajectories of physical and mental health among midlife caregivers for parents and parents-in-law," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    7. Peters, Luke & MacKenzie, Don, 2019. "The death and rebirth of bikesharing in Seattle: Implications for policy and system design," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 208-226.
    8. 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.
    9. 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).
    10. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2023. "Informal Caregivers and Life Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 1883-1930, August.
    11. Costi, Chiara & Hollingsworth, Bruce & O'Sullivan, Vincent & Zucchelli, Eugenio, 2023. "Does caring for others affect our mental health? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Andrew M Briggs & Islene Araujo de Carvalho, 2018. "Actions required to implement integrated care for older people in the community using the World Health Organization's ICOPE approach: A global Delphi consensus study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, October.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Edward Henry & John Cullinan, 2024. "Addressing the distributional consequences of spillovers in health economic evaluation: A prioritarian approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 764-778, April.
    17. Coe, Norma B. & Goda, Gopi Shah & Van Houtven, Courtney Harold, 2023. "Family spillovers and long-term care insurance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    18. Georgia Casanova & Andrea Principi & Giovanni Lamura, 2020. "Social Innovation in Long-Term Care: Lessons from the Italian Case," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-17, March.
    19. Nicholas Stacey & Andrew Mirelman & Noemi Kreif & Marc Suhrcke & Karen Hofman & Ijeoma Edoka, 2021. "Facility standards and the quality of public sector primary care: Evidence from South Africa's “Ideal Clinics” program," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1543-1558, July.
    20. 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.

    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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:10:p:5349-:d:552107. 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.