IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/114272.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding the economic value and impacts on informal carers of people living with mental health conditions

Author

Listed:
  • McDaid, David
  • Park, A-La

Abstract

Informal carers play a vital role in supporting people living with mental health conditions, but comparatively little is known about the economic value of caring. This study undertook an online survey of adult informal carers supporting adults with mental health conditions to better understand the impacts of caring on carer quality of life, levels of loneliness, finances and employment, as well as estimate the economic value of time spent caring. In total, 712 carers participated in the multi-national survey between August 2019 and April 2020. A total of 17% were male, with a mean age of 53, and 68% supported a child living with a mental health condition. A total of 56% of care recipients were male, with a mean age of 37. Adverse impacts on quality of life, loneliness and personal finances were greatest in carers living with care recipients. Overall mean weekly hours of care were 43.42, rising to 65.41 for carers living with care recipients. Mean weekly costs of care per carer ranged from €660 to €2223 depending on living arrangements. Annual costs ranged between €34,960 and €125,412, depending on living arrangements and valuation method. Informal care costs are substantial, and policy makers should consider investing more in carer support, especially for carers living with care recipients.

Suggested Citation

  • McDaid, David & Park, A-La, 2022. "Understanding the economic value and impacts on informal carers of people living with mental health conditions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114272, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:114272
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/114272/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernard van den Berg & Han Bleichrodt & Louis Eeckhoudt, 2005. "The economic value of informal care: a study of informal caregivers' and patients' willingness to pay and willingness to accept for informal care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 363-376, April.
    2. McDaid, David & Park, A-La, 2021. "Modelling the economic impact of reducing loneliness in community dwelling older people in England," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108594, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Josephine C. Jacobs & Courtney H. Van Houtven & Terri Tanielian & Rajeev Ramchand, 2019. "Economic Spillover Effects of Intensive Unpaid Caregiving," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 553-562, April.
    4. Juan Oliva-Moreno & Julio López-Bastida & Rubén Osuna-Guerrero & Angel Montejo-González & Beatriz Duque-González, 2006. "The costs of schizophrenia in Spain," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 7(3), pages 179-184, September.
    5. Agata Łaszewska & Johannes Wancata & Rebecca Jahn & Judit Simon, 2020. "The excess economic burden of mental disorders: findings from a cross-sectional prevalence survey in Austria," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(7), pages 1075-1089, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. David McDaid & A-La Park, 2022. "Understanding the Economic Value and Impacts on Informal Carers of People Living with Mental Health Conditions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu & Romain Craste & Bengt Kriström & Pere Riera, 2014. "Non-market valuation in France: An overview of the research activity," Working Papers hal-01087365, HAL.
    3. Young Bum Kim & Seung Hee Lee, 2022. "Gender Differences in Correlates of Loneliness among Community-Dwelling Older Koreans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-11, June.
    4. Emmanouil Mentzakis & Mandy Ryan & Paul McNamee, 2011. "Using discrete choice experiments to value informal care tasks: exploring preference heterogeneity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 930-944, August.
    5. Huajie Jin & Iris Mosweu, 2017. "The Societal Cost of Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 25-42, January.
    6. Antonio García-Ruiz & Lucía Pérez-Costillas & Ana Montesinos & Javier Alcalde & Itziar Oyagüez & Miguel Casado, 2012. "Cost-effectiveness analysis of antipsychotics in reducing schizophrenia relapses," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & van den Berg, Bernard, 2011. "Putting different price tags on the same health condition: Re-evaluating the well-being valuation approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1032-1043.
    8. Bernard van den Berg & Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2007. "Monetary valuation of informal care: the well-being valuation method," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1227-1244.
    9. Pestieau, Pierre & Ponthiere, Gregory, 2016. "Long-term care and births timing," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 340-357.
    10. Courbage, Christophe & Eeckhoudt, Louis, 2012. "On insuring and caring for parents’ long-term care needs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 842-850.
    11. Juan Oliva-Moreno & Marta Trapero-Bertran & Luz Maria Peña-Longobardo & Raúl del Pozo-Rubio, 2017. "The Valuation of Informal Care in Cost-of-Illness Studies: A Systematic Review," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 331-345, March.
    12. Bernard van den Berg & Amiram Gafni & France Portrait, 2013. "Attributing a monetary value to patients’ time: A contingent valuation approach," Working Papers 090cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    13. Jesús Martín-Fernández & Gloria Ariza-Cardiel & Luz Mª Peña-Longobardo & Elena Polentinos-Castro & Juan Oliva-Moreno & Ana Isabel Gil-Lacruz & Héctor Medina-Palomino & Isabel del Cura-González, 2017. "“Gaining or losing”: The importance of the perspective in primary care health services valuation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Luz María Peña-Longobardo & Isaac Aranda-Reneo & Juan Oliva-Moreno & Svenja Litzkendorf & Isabelle Durand-Zaleski & Eduardo Tizzano & Julio López-Bastida, 2020. "The Economic Impact and Health-Related Quality of Life of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. An Analysis across Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-12, August.
    15. David C. Grabowski & Edward C. Norton & Courtney H. Van Houtven, 2012. "Informal Care," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 30, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Hassink, Wolter H.J. & Van den Berg, Bernard, 2011. "Time-bound opportunity costs of informal care: Consequences for access to professional care, caregiver support, and labour supply estimates," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(10), pages 1508-1516.
    17. Bernard van den Berg & Wolter Hassink, 2006. "Moral hazard and cash benefits in long-term home care, CHERE Working Paper 2006/12," Working Papers 2006/12, CHERE, University of Technology, Sydney.
    18. Jane Hall & Patricia Kenny & Ishrat Hossain, 2007. "The provision of informal care in terminal illness: An analysis of carers? needs using a discrete choice experiment," Working Papers 2007/12, CHERE, University of Technology, Sydney.
    19. T. Lehnert & O. H. Günther & A. Hajek & S. G. Riedel-Heller & H. H. König, 2018. "Preferences for home- and community-based long-term care services in Germany: a discrete choice experiment," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(9), pages 1213-1223, December.
    20. Groothuis, Peter A., 2010. "Land Use Issues: The Last Settler's Syndrome," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 42(2), pages 357-365, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    informal care; mental disorders; cost of illness; caregivers; loneliness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    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:ehl:lserod:114272. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.