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Is the grass greener on the other side? The health impact of providing informal care in the UK and the Netherlands

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  • Bom, Judith
  • Stöckel, Jannis

Abstract

Facing rapidly ageing populations, many Western countries aim to stimulate informal care provision as a way to meet the growing long-term care (LTC) demand. While various studies report the impact of providing informal care on the health of caregivers, it is less clear whether and to what extent this impact differs across countries. Using propensity score matching we match caregivers to similar non-caregiving individuals using four waves of the Dutch Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation and the UK Household Longitudinal Study. The samples consist of 8129 Dutch and 7186 UK respondents, among which respectively 1711 and 1713 individuals are identified as caregivers.

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  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:269:y:2021:i:c:s0277953620307814
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113562
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chris Sampson’s journal round-up for 25th January 2021
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2021-01-25 12:01:17

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    2. 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).
    3. Teo, Hansel, 2023. "The impact of a partner's nursing home admission on individuals' mental well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    4. 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).
    5. Portier, Camille, 2023. "Heterogeneity in the mental health cost of caring for others," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    6. Eibich, Peter, 2023. "Instrumental variable estimates of the burden of parental caregiving," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 26(C).
    7. Stöckel, Jannis & Bom, Judith, 2022. "Revisiting longer-term health effects of informal caregiving: Evidence from the UK," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Mariana Calderón-Jaramillo & Pilar Zueras, 2023. "Cared and uncared populations: understanding unmet care needs of older adults (65+) across different social care systems in Europe," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Lowe, Thomas A. & Meijering, Louise & de Haas, Billie, 2023. "The role of performativity in informal dementia carers' capability to be mobile," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    12. Han, Sae Hwang & Kim, Kyungmin & Burr, Jeffrey A., 2021. "Take a sad song and make it better: Spousal activity limitations, caregiving, and depressive symptoms among couples," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    13. Urwin, Sean & Lau, Yiu-Shing & Grande, Gunn & Sutton, Matthew, 2023. "Informal caregiving and the allocation of time: implications for opportunity costs and measurement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    14. 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).

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