IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v365y2025ics0277953624009845.html

Spousal characteristics and unmet care needs: A longitudinal national study of adults aged 50 and over in England

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Jingwen
  • Zhang, Yanan
  • Bennett, Matthew R.

Abstract

This paper investigates unmet needs among dyads of people aged 50 and over in England. Understanding the extent and patterns of unmet needs for long-term care across different social groups is critical for understanding care-related experiences and inequalities and planning the long-term care system. Although spouses are a main source of care support, little is known about how spouses' characteristics relate to one's experience of unmet care needs. This study adopts a dyadic perspective, investigating the association between unmet care needs and spouses' characteristics, including socioeconomic status, health status and the quality of spousal relationships. Drawing on data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (N = 3439), we matched the information of individuals who have care needs to the characteristics of their spouses and used random effects modelling to account for the longitudinal nature of the data. The results show that having a spouse with poorer functional abilities was associated with a higher risk of experiencing objective and subjective unmet needs. Men were more likely to experience objective unmet care needs if their spouses engaged in paid work, but this is not the case for women. Women faced a lower risk of subjective and objective unmet needs when having a closer relationship with their spouse, whereas this pattern was not observed among men. The findings highlight the importance of considering the interpersonal care relationships and gendered dynamics of caregiving, providing insights into designing gender-sensitive intervention programmes to better support people in care needs and their families.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Jingwen & Zhang, Yanan & Bennett, Matthew R., 2025. "Spousal characteristics and unmet care needs: A longitudinal national study of adults aged 50 and over in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:365:y:2025:i:c:s0277953624009845
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624009845
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117530?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Badi H. Baltagi, 2021. "Econometric Analysis of Panel Data," Springer Texts in Business and Economics, Springer, edition 6, number 978-3-030-53953-5, January.
    2. Momtaz, Yadollah Abolfathi & Hamid, Tengku Aizan & Ibrahim, Rahimah, 2012. "Unmet needs among disabled elderly Malaysians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 859-863.
    3. García-Gómez, Pilar & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores & Oliva-Moreno, Juan, 2015. "Inequity in long-term care use and unmet need: Two sides of the same coin," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 147-158.
    4. Yanan Zhang & Matthew R Bennett & Jessica Kelley, 2024. "Insights Into Informal Caregivers’ Well-being: A Longitudinal Analysis of Care Intensity, Care Location, and Care Relationship," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 79(2), pages 435-446.
    5. Joanne R Campione & Katarzyna A Zebrak & Candace Kemp, 2020. "Predictors of Unmet Need Among Informal Caregivers," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(10), pages 2181-2192.
    6. Michio Yuda & Jinkook Lee, 2016. "Effects of Informal Caregivers’ Health on Care Recipients," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 192-210, June.
    7. Zhu, Yumei & Österle, August, 2017. "Rural-urban disparities in unmet long-term care needs in China: The role of the hukou status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 30-37.
    8. Heejeong Choi & Jeremy B. Yorgason & David R. Johnson, 2016. "Marital Quality and Health in Middle and Later Adulthood: Dyadic Associations," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 71(1), pages 154-164.
    9. Bell, Andrew & Jones, Kelvyn, 2015. "Explaining Fixed Effects: Random Effects Modeling of Time-Series Cross-Sectional and Panel Data," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 133-153, January.
    10. Liu, Hui & Zhang, Zhenmei & Zhang, Yan, 2021. "A national longitudinal study of marital quality and cognitive decline among older men and women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    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. Philipp Warum & Fabrizio Culotta & Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger & Thomas Horvath & Thomas Leoni & Pauline Pohl & Martin Spielauer, 2025. "The Impact of Demographic Change on Spousal Caregiving and Future Gaps in Long-term Care: Microsimulation Projections for Austria and Italy," WIFO Working Papers 709, WIFO.

    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. Takele, Tesfaye Belay & Tveter, Eivind, 2025. "Trade logistics costs in landlocked developing countries: The role of bargaining power," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    2. Joan Costa-Font & Cinzia Di Novi & Cristina Elisa Orso, 2025. "From Care Gaps to Mental Health Strain," DEM Working Papers Series 231, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    3. Lei, Xiaoyan & Bai, Chen & Hong, Jingpeng & Liu, Hong, 2022. "Long-term care insurance and the well-being of older adults and their families: Evidence from China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    4. Zhu, Yumei & Österle, August, 2017. "Rural-urban disparities in unmet long-term care needs in China: The role of the hukou status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 30-37.
    5. Denly, Michael & Helms, Benjamin, 2025. "A Report on "Corruption and Co-optation in Autocracy: Evidence from Russia"," I4R Discussion Paper Series 260, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    6. Gutiérrez-Romero, Roxana & Ahamed, Mostak, 2021. "COVID-19 response needs to broaden financial inclusion to curb the rise in poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Ruofan Liao & Zhengtao Chen & Jirakom Sirisrisakulchai & Jianxu Liu, 2025. "Enhancing Rural Economic Sustainability in China Through Agricultural Socialization Services: A Novel Perspective on Spatial-Temporal Dynamics," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-28, January.
    8. Wu, Yu & Mullan, Katrina & Biggs, Trent & Caviglia-Harris, Jill L. & Harris, Daniel & Sills, Erin O., "undated". "Do Forests Provide Watershed Services to Local Populations in the Humid Tropics? Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274012, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    9. Patrick Velte, 2025. "Audit Quality and Materiality Disclosure Quality in Integrated Reporting: The Moderating Effect of Carbon Assurance Quality," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 3785-3801, May.
    10. Badi H. Baltagi & Peter Egger & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2007. "A Monte Carlo Study for Pure and Pretest Estimators of a Panel Data Model with Spatially Autocorrelated Disturbances," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 87-88, pages 11-38.
    11. Dimitrios Karakostas & Ioannis Tsakalos & Athanasios Fassas & Dimitris Kenourgios, 2026. "The disciplinary effect of banking supervision: is the EU-wide 2023 stress test merely a supervisory formality?," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(1), pages 1-11, March.
    12. Sourafel Girma & Steve Thompson & Peter Wright, 2006. "International Acquisitions, Domestic Competition and Firm Performance," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 335-349.
    13. Kasraian, Dena & Maat, Kees & van Wee, Bert, 2018. "Urban developments and daily travel distances: Fixed, random and hybrid effects models using a Dutch pseudo-panel over three decades," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 228-236.
    14. Bruno S. Frey & Anthony Gullo, 2021. "Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 432-458, May.
    15. Indra de Soysa, 2022. "Economic freedom vs. egalitarianism: An empirical test of weak & strong sustainability, 1970–2017," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 236-268, May.
    16. Hernæs, Øystein & Kverndokk, Snorre & Markussen, Simen & Øien, Henning, 2023. "When health trumps money: Economic incentives and health equity in the public provision of nursing homes in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    17. Jessica L. Darby & David J. Ketchen & Brent D. Williams & Travis Tokar, 2020. "The Implications of Firm‐Specific Policy Risk, Policy Uncertainty, and Industry Factors for Inventory: A Resource Dependence Perspective," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 56(4), pages 3-24, October.
    18. Panarello, Demetrio, 2021. "Economic insecurity, conservatism, and the crisis of environmentalism: 30 years of evidence," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    19. Arjan H Schakel & A J Brown, 2022. "Dissecting Public Opinion on Regional Authority: Four Types of Regionalists Based on Citizens’ Preferences for Self-Rule and Shared Rule," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 52(2), pages 310-328.
    20. Ryan H. Murphy & Colin O’Reilly, 2023. "Freedom through taxation: the effect of fiscal capacity on the rule of law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 69-90, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:socmed:v:365:y:2025:i:c:s0277953624009845. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.