IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/chinae/v30y2022i5p206-226.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Elderly Care Provision and the Impact on Caregiver Health in China

Author

Listed:
  • Jingyi Ai
  • Jin Feng
  • Yangyang Yu

Abstract

With the fast pace of population aging, industrialization, and urbanization in China, the main source of elderly care is changing. Using China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey data, we investigate the elderly care provision situation and find that spouses are currently the most important elderly care providers in China. We use a model to depict the trade‐off between a caregiver's own health and the care quality obtained by the care recipient. The model predicts that under some conditions, the caregivers will provide care at the cost of their health. Employing a stratified propensity score matching method, we find that spouses' caregivers are more likely to have depression, physical pain, and hypertension than noncaregivers. The negative effects are larger for caregivers with a high level of care intensity or less support from other resources. Female spousal caregivers tend to suffer more from depression and physical pain than male spousal caregivers. Our findings suggest that policies toward “healthy aging” should target not only the disabled elderly but also their spousal caregivers who are also elderly people.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:chinae:v:30:y:2022:i:5:p:206-226
    DOI: 10.1111/cwe.12443
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/cwe.12443
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/cwe.12443?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hirst, Michael, 2005. "Carer distress: A prospective, population-based study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 697-708, August.
    2. Xiao-yuan Dong & Jin Feng & Yangyang Yu, 2017. "Relative Pay of Domestic Eldercare Workers in Shanghai, China," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 135-159, January.
    3. Lechner, Michael, 2009. "Long-run labour market and health effects of individual sports activities," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 839-854, July.
    4. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    5. Chen, Lu & Fan, Hongli & Chu, Lanlan, 2019. "The hidden cost of informal care: An empirical study on female caregivers' subjective well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 85-93.
    6. Norma B. Coe & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2009. "Caring for mom and neglecting yourself? The health effects of caring for an elderly parent," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(9), pages 991-1010, September.
    7. 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.
    8. Schmitz, Hendrik & Westphal, Matthias, 2015. "Short- and medium-term effects of informal care provision on female caregivers’ health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 174-185.
    9. Young Kyung Do & Edward C. Norton & Sally C. Stearns & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2015. "Informal Care and Caregiver's Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 224-237, February.
    10. Connelly, Rachel, 1992. "The Effect of Child Care Costs on Married Women's Labor Force Participation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(1), pages 83-90, February.
    11. Elena Glinskaya & Zhanlian Feng, 2018. "Options for Aged Care in China," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 29807.
    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. Ai, Jingyi & Feng, Jin & Zhang, Xiaohan, 2024. "Long-term care insurance coverage and labor force participation of older people: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    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. Eibich, Peter, 2023. "Instrumental variable estimates of the burden of parental caregiving," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    2. P.L. de Zwart & P. Bakx & E.K.A. van Doorslaer, 2017. "Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64? The health impact of caregiving to one's spouse," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(S2), pages 127-138, September.
    3. 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.
    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. 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.
    6. Marie Blaise & Sandrine Juin & Hélène Le Forner & Quitterie Roquebert, 2024. "I care, you clean? Gendered effects of informal care on couple housework and leisure time," LISER Working Paper Series 2024-05, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    7. Sandrine Juin, 2016. "Care for dependent elderly people : dealing with health and financing issues," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph16-02 edited by Thomas Barnay.
    8. Sandrine Juin, 2019. "Formal home care, informal support and caregiver health: should other people care?," Erudite Working Paper 2019-21, Erudite.
    9. Le, Duc Dung & Ibuka, Yoko, 2023. "Understanding the effects of informal caregiving on health and well-being: Heterogeneity and mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    10. Gonçalves, Judite & von Hafe, Francisco & Filipe, Luís, 2021. "Formal home care use and spousal health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    11. P.L. de Zwart & P. Bakx & E.K.A. van Doorslaer, 2016. "Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m 64? The Health Impact of Caregiving," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 16-106/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    12. Cinzia Di Novi & Rowena Jacobs & Matteo Migheli, 2013. "The quality of life of female informal caregivers: from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea," Working Papers 084cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    13. 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).
    14. 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).
    15. Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2018. "Social Insurance and Health," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Health Econometrics, volume 127, pages 57-84, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    16. repec:zbw:rwirep:0426 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Marie Blaise & Laetitia Dillenseger, 2020. "Informal caregivers and life satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from the Netherlands," Working Papers of BETA 2020-55, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    18. Hendrik Schmitz & Matthias Westphal, 2013. "Short- and Medium-term Effects of Informal Care Provision on Health," Ruhr Economic Papers 0426, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Sean Urwin & Yiu‐Shing Lau & Gunn Grande & Matt Sutton, 2023. "Informal caregiving, time use and experienced wellbeing," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 356-374, February.
    20. Schmitz, H. & Westphal, M., 2013. "Short- and medium-term effects of informal care provision on health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 13/23, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    21. Chen, Lu & Fan, Hongli & Chu, Lanlan, 2019. "The hidden cost of informal care: An empirical study on female caregivers' subjective well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 85-93.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:chinae:v:30:y:2022:i:5:p:206-226. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwepacn.html .

    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.