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Long-term Care Provision and the Well-Being of Spousal Caregivers: An Analysis of 138 European Regions

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  • Melanie Wagner
  • Martina Brandt

Abstract

ObjectivesThe individual burden of caring for one’s relatives not only depends on care characteristics but is also related to contextual factors. The objective of this study is to determine whether regional formal long-term care provision is linked to the well-being of spousal caregivers introducing the concept of “control†as central pathway to explain this link.MethodWe applied multilevel analysis using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) from over 29,000 Europeans and 1,800 spousal caregivers located in 138 regions in 11 countries to analyze the effects of regional contexts on caregiver well-being. The provision of formal care in a region was measured by the number of long-term care beds in nursing and residential homes among the older population.ResultsWe found that spousal caregivers’ well-being, measured in terms of life satisfaction, loneliness, and depression, was positively linked to the regional availability of formal care, which is partly due to higher perceived control in regions with more formal care provision.DiscussionOur results suggest that formal care supply is essential not only for care recipients but also for caregivers: perceived alternatives to the private care arrangement go along with greater well-being of informal caregivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Melanie Wagner & Martina Brandt, 2018. "Long-term Care Provision and the Well-Being of Spousal Caregivers: An Analysis of 138 European Regions," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(4), pages 24-34.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:4:p:e24-e34.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx133
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    1. Dujardin, Claire & Farfan-Portet, Maria-Isabel & Mitchell, Richard & Popham, Frank & Thomas, Isabelle & Lorant, Vincent, 2011. "Does country influence the health burden of informal care? An international comparison between Belgium and Great Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(8), pages 1123-1132.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gonçalves, Judite & von Hafe, Francisco & Filipe, Luís, 2021. "Formal home care use and spousal health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. 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).
    3. André Hajek & Benedikt Kretzler & Hans-Helmut König, 2021. "Informal Caregiving, Loneliness and Social Isolation: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Fátima Barbosa & Sara Simões Dias & Gina Voss & Alice Delerue Matos, 2023. "The Longitudinal Association between Co-Residential Care Provision and Healthcare Use among the Portuguese Population Aged 50 and Over: A SHARE Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-14, February.
    5. Iegor Rudnytskyi & Joël Wagner, 2019. "Drivers of Old-Age Dependence and Long-Term Care Usage in Switzerland—A Structural Equation Model Approach," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Uccheddu, Damiano & Gauthier, Anne H. & Steverink, Nardi & Emery, Tom, 2019. "The pains and reliefs of the transitions into and out of spousal caregiving. A cross-national comparison of the health consequences of caregiving by gender," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    7. Alina Schmitz & Martina Brandt, 2022. "Health Limitations, Regional Care Infrastructure and Wellbeing in Later Life: A Multilevel Analysis of 96 European Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 693-709, November.
    8. Rong Fu & Dung Le & Yoko Ibuka, 2023. "The impact of contracting formal care benefits on caregivers fwell-being: evidence from Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2023-005, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.

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