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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2024

Open Access 01-12-2024 | Research

Cross-country variations in the caregiver role: evidence from the ENTWINE-iCohort study

Authors: Mikołaj Zarzycki, Noa Vilchinsky, Eva Bei, Giulia Ferraris, Diane Seddon, Val Morrison

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2024

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Abstract

Background

Globally, economically developed countries face similar ageing demographics and the challenge of a ‘care gap’, yet they vary due to different care and formal support systems, and different cultural and societal norms around illness and care. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine cross-country variations in caregiver motivations, willingness, values, meaning in life, illness beliefs, and experiences of wellbeing, gain, health-related quality of life, burden and depression, across 6 European countries and Israel. Cross-country differences in the above-mentioned informal caregiver experiences are rarely described.

Methods

An online survey (ENTWINE-iCohort) was conducted using validated measures wherever possible. This paper utilises data from 879 caregivers and seven countries (Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the UK, and Israel).

Results

No consistent finding supporting the concurrent relationship between caregiver support policies/country culture and caregiver motivations/willingness was found. Caregivers in countries typically characterised by individualist cultures reported lower familism, higher self-enhancement values, and greater perceived illness threat compared to more collectivist countries. Search for meaning was higher in poorer countries than in wealthier countries. Higher negative caregiver experiences (e.g., burden) and lower positive experiences (e.g., wellbeing) were generally observed in countries with underdeveloped caregiver support as compared to countries with more developed formal support systems.

Conclusions

Cross-country variations can be explained to varying degrees by national policies around care (or their absence) and country cultural contexts. The results emphasise the importance of formal support services for achieving positive caregiver experiences, and help inform the development of policies and measures to support caregivers in Europe and Israel.
Footnotes
1
For specific and detailed cross-country differences, please see the full articles to which references are provided. Due to length of these type of findings, only a summary is provided in the introduction to emphasise the issue of eventual cross-country variations in the study variables.
 
2
Germany and Ireland were excluded from the analyses presented in this article as they did not meet the necessary assumptions.
 
3
Germany and Ireland were excluded from the ANCOVAs as they did not meet the necessary assumptions.
 
4
Country codes: GR = Greece; IL = Israel; IT = Italy; NL = Netherlands; PL = Poland; SE = Sweden; UK = United Kingdom.
 
5
ANCOVA tests controlled for several possible cofounders, including care recipient’s age and gender, the number of care recipient’s health conditions to ensure that the differences in variables examined were due to the caregiver’s country of residence.
 
6
The level of wealthiness of the country was based on the data from the World Bank with regards to PPP GDP [86], i.e., GDP per capita based on PPP (purchasing power parity). The following PPP GDP per capita have been reported for the two set of countries between which the highest significant differences have been noted: the United Kingdom (3,12); Poland (1,29) and Greece (0,29).
 
7
As a reminder, ANCOVA tests controlled for several possible cofounders (see Table 3 and Methods).
 
8
ANCOVA tests controlled for several possible cofounders, including the intensity of care (i.e., the number of hours spent on caregiving per last week).
 
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Metadata
Title
Cross-country variations in the caregiver role: evidence from the ENTWINE-iCohort study
Authors
Mikołaj Zarzycki
Noa Vilchinsky
Eva Bei
Giulia Ferraris
Diane Seddon
Val Morrison
Publication date
01-12-2024
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2024
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18302-6

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