Met or unmet need for long-term care: Formal and informal care in southern Europe

Albuquerque, Paula

doi:10.1016/j.jeoa.2022.100409

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In this sense, the limited support received, the lack of options, and the fragilities of social care and healthcare in Portugal may lead Portuguese spouse caregivers to experience difficulties in accessing healthcare services as they prioritize the dependent spouse's needs to the detriment of their own. The findings of our study reinforce a recent study [38] which stressed that Portugal performs poorly compared to other Southern European countries in terms of meeting the long-term care needs of the population aged 50 and over.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Doetsch et al [46] highlight the existence of several barriers to healthcare access for Portuguese older people. Portugal is also the Southern European country where people aged 50 and over have the greatest need for care and where people are most likely to receive only informal care [38]. The ideology of familialism is based on instrumentality, the existence of weak formal support, and a model in which individuals have learned to be self-reliant [35,71].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies also show that Portugal has the largest percentage of co-residential caregivers aged 50 and over [33,34] and of intensive caregivers (who provide 11 hours or more of care/help per week) [21]. In addition, in Portugal, the family continues to be the most important provider of care for older and dependent people [35][36][37][38], and Portuguese people aged 50 and over have higher unmet social care needs [38]. Despite this, the level of health expenditure per capita is low and public provision of community care services in Portugal is limited [32,39,40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Longitudinal Association between Co-Residential Care Provision and Healthcare Use among the Portuguese Population Aged 50 and Over: A SHARE Study

Barbosa

Dias

Voss

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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Co-residential care is associated with poor caregiver health and a high burden. Although Portugal relies heavily on co-residential care by individuals aged 50 and over, studies on the impact of co-residential care provision on Portuguese caregivers’ healthcare use are lacking. This study aims to analyze the impact of co-residential care (spousal and non-spousal care) on healthcare use of the Portuguese population aged 50 plus. Data from waves 4 (n = 1697) and 6 (n = 1460) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were used. Negative Binomial Generalized Linear Mixed Models with random (individual level) and fixed (covariates) effects were performed. The results show that the number of visits to the doctor decrease significantly over time for the co-residential spousal caregivers as compared to the non-co-residential caregivers. This result highlights the fact that the Portuguese co-residential spousal caregiver group is at a higher risk of not using healthcare, thus jeopardizing their own health and continuity of care. Promoting more accessible healthcare services and implementing public policies adjusted to the needs of informal caregivers are important to improve the health and healthcare use of Portuguese spousal co-residential caregivers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Longitudinal Association between Co-Residential Care Provision and Healthcare Use among the Portuguese Population Aged 50 and Over: A SHARE Study

Barbosa

Dias

Voss

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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“…The scientific literature addressing care and the role of informal care has gained prominence in social sciences, particularly in analyses of long-term care systems and the relationships between formal and informal care (Greve, 2017 ; Verbakel, 2018 ; Barczyk and Kredler, 2019 ; Ariaans et al, 2021 ; Da Roit, 2021 ; Albuquerque, 2022 ; Tinios et al, 2022 ), care and welfare regimes and policies (Anttonen and Sipilä, 1996 ; Bettio and Plantenga, 2004 , 2008 ; Ferrera, 2012 ; Torres et al, 2012 ; Albertini, 2014 ; Frericks et al, 2014 ; Batthyány, 2020 ), as well as the economics of care (Zelizer, 2011 ), the role of care in social reproduction (Bhattacharya, 2017 ) and the ethics of care (Tronto, 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The concept of informal care: ambiguities and controversies on its scientific and political uses

Cruz,

Soeiro,

Canha

et al. 2023

Front. Sociol.

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Starting from an analysis of the scientific and political uses of the concept of informal care, this paper raises questions and launches the debate on the causes and effects of its uses. Recognizing the diversity and the contradictions found across the use of the term, it explains how its predominant use in Europe can be problematic. First, although it is widely recognized that care is provided primarily by women, this gender dimension is not emphasized in a concept that obscures the sexual division. Second, it does not render explicit that informal care is work, despite being unpaid. Third, the allusion to informality is likely to generate confusion with informal employment of care workers. Finally, studies often focus exclusively on care provided by family members, without distinguishing the spaces in which the work takes place and the social relationships it involves, namely the family or community. In Europe, where documents from (non)governmental organizations focus mainly on long-term care related to demographic aging, it is the care crisis of formal care provision systems, faced with financial fragility, reduction in funds and insufficient supply to meet the demand, that brings informal care to the political and scientific agendas. This paper argues that it is necessary to define conceptual boundaries that allow international studies on the dimension and value of this care work to be compared. It also advocates the importance of making visible that this is work, unpaid and female-dominated, since this view supports action guidelines more focused on social transformation and empowerment.

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Informal and formal long-term care utilization and unmet needs in Europe: examining socioeconomic disparities and the role of social policies for older adults

Szenkurök,

Weber,

Bilger

2024

Int J Health Econ Manag.

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The rising number of older adults with limitations in their daily activities has major implications for the demands placed on long-term care (LTC) systems across Europe. Recognizing that demand can be both constrained and encouraged by individual and country-specific factors, this study explains the uptake of home-based long-term care in 18 European countries with LTC policies and pension generosity along with individual factors such as socioeconomic status. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe conducted in 2019, we apply a two-part multilevel model to assess if disparities in use of LTC are driven by disparities in needs or disparities in use of care when in need. While individual characteristics largely affect the use of care through its association with disparities in need, country-level characteristics are important for the use of care when in need. In particular, the better health of wealthier and more educated individuals makes them less likely to use any type of home-based personal care. At the country level, results show that the absence of a means-tested benefit scheme and the availability of cash-for-care benefits (as opposed to in-kind) are strongly associated with the use of formal care, whether it is mixed (with informal care) or exclusive. LTC policies are, however, shown to be insufficient to significantly reduce unmet needs for personal care. Conversely, generous pensions are significantly associated with lower unmet needs, underscoring the importance of considering the likely adverse effects of future pension reforms.

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Met or unmet need for long-term care: Formal and informal care in southern Europe

Cited by 10 publications

References 36 publications

The Longitudinal Association between Co-Residential Care Provision and Healthcare Use among the Portuguese Population Aged 50 and Over: A SHARE Study

The Longitudinal Association between Co-Residential Care Provision and Healthcare Use among the Portuguese Population Aged 50 and Over: A SHARE Study

The concept of informal care: ambiguities and controversies on its scientific and political uses

Informal and formal long-term care utilization and unmet needs in Europe: examining socioeconomic disparities and the role of social policies for older adults

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