Abstract
We analyse the impact of the provision of care on the health and quality of life (QoL) of adult female informal caregivers using a representative sample drawn from the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe (SHARE). We match each informal caregiver with a non-carer using propensity score matching and test whether matched individuals differ on self-assessed health and a functional indicator of QoL and whether this relationship differs across European regions. We find a North–South gradient both for self-assessed health and QoL, and our results show that the provision of caregiving to close relatives in Europe impacts on the caregivers’ QoL and health in a way that depends on their geographical location, the degree of formal care and specific cultural and social factors of the area. We find that informal caregiving is a complex phenomenon which may bring both psychological rewards and distress to providers of care and this complexity, along with the geographical gradient highlight the importance of ensuring that policies match the needs of individual carers in their own geographical areas and cultural contexts.
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Acknowledgments
An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Italian Health Economics Association, Rome, Italy; at the annual meeting of the International Institute of Public Finance, Taormina, Italy; at the annual international conference on Health Economics, Management & Policy, Athens, Greece. The authors wish to thank the participants for useful comments received. We also thank Vincenzo Carrieri, Giacomo Pasini, Mario Padula, Paola Profeta, Chiara D. Pronzato and Francesca Zantomio for useful suggestions. The authors also wish to thank the editors and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Financial support provided by Fondazione FarmaFactoring (Milan) for this research project is gratefully acknowledged. This research collaboration emerged as a result of Cinzia Di Novi being awarded an Alan Williams Fellowship to visit the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York. The usual disclaimer applies.
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Di Novi, C., Jacobs, R. & Migheli, M. The Quality of Life of Female Informal Caregivers: From Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea. Eur J Population 31, 309–333 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-014-9336-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-014-9336-7