The role of social networks in using home care by older people across Continental Europe

Abstract

The diversification of caregiving arrangements in European societies has drawn attention to the factors that condition the use of care by older people. Social and family relations appear as a key factor, mainly to be related to the availability and accessibility to potential informal caregivers. Recent studies evidenced that geographical proximity and a larger social network increase the probability of receiving informal support in old age. However, the ways in which interpersonal relationships are associated with the use of formal care, as well as the cross-country variability of this association, have been barely explored. Using a sample of 37,708 individuals aged 65 and over from Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study examines to what extent the characteristics of older people's social networks predict the use of three types of home care; formal, informal, or combined, exploring the cross-European convergences and divergences. Binomial logistic regressions are conducted to compare four macro-regions in continental

Childlessness, geographical proximity and non-family support in 12 European countries

“…Institutional services of care are less available in the post-communist countries where during the transitory period of the 1990s and 2000s the level of welfare expenses remained considerably lower than in other parts of Europe (Boenker et al , 2002; Vihalemm et al , 2017; European Commission, 2018). This translates into strong support received from the family (Saraceno and Keck, 2010; Litwin and Stoeckel, 2014; Fernández-Carro and Vlachantoni, 2019), but not necessarily into low involvement of non-family individuals. In the study concerned with resorting to advice and help when looking for a job, nationals of different east European countries appear to develop both the strongest and the weakest non-family ties of informal support in Europe (Conkova et al , 2018), meaning that the interrelation between different sources of support follows not a single, but various country-specific patterns.…”

Transnational economic clusters: The case of the Iberian Peninsula

“…Other important questions for these regional development processes are the real and current differences in the economic structure among the European regions and countries (Damianakos, 1997), as well as, in the social dimensions (Fernandez-Carro & Vlachantoni, 2019) and in the several policy instruments (La Spina, 2017). The perspective for the future will be a continuous trend for regional divergence in Europe between the Eastern, Southern (Portugal, Spain and Italy) and other countries (Fiaschi, Gianmoena, & Parenti, 2018).…”

Experiences of Close Relatives of Older Adults in Need of a Nursing Home: It Is We Who Manage Their Fragile Daily Life

“…Research on ageing in place shows that most older adults prefer to continue living in their ordinary housings with the option to receive home-based care [3]. Vanleerberghe et al, [5].…”

“…said that the opportunity to continue ageing in place with support from health and social care is ofered by most societies [1,2,5]. However, with increased age and multiple diseases, the need for care becomes increasingly complex, and not all societies have the ability to deliver extensive care in an older adult's ordinary housing [2].…”