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Cross-national data on informal caregivers of older people with long-term care needs in the European population: time for a more coordinated and comparable approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2022

Aviad Tur-Sinai Open the ORCID record for Aviad Tur-Sinai [Opens in a new window] ,
Andrea Teti Open the ORCID record for Andrea Teti [Opens in a new window] ,
Alexander Rommel ,
Valentina Hlebec ,
Stecy Yghemonos  and
Giovanni Lamura
Aviad Tur-Sinai*
Affiliation:
Department of Health Systems Management, Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel School of Nursing, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA
Andrea Teti
Affiliation:
Institute for Gerontology, University of Vechta, Vechta, Germany
Alexander Rommel
Affiliation:
Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, Berlin, Germany
Valentina Hlebec
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Stecy Yghemonos
Affiliation:
Eurocarers, Brussels, Belgium
Giovanni Lamura
Affiliation:
INRCA IRCCS–National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing, Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing, Ancona, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: aviadt@yvc.ac.il
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Abstract

To promote long-term care policies for older adults, accurate mapping of the often invisible and insufficiently recognized role of their informal caregivers is needed. This paper measures the prevalence of informal caregivers in the European population, illustrates current difficulties in gathering unequivocal information on this topic and deals with the scientific and policy implications of the problem. Using the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) and the Study on Health and Ageing in Europe (SHARE), the current difficulties in gathering unequivocal information on this topic are illustrated. In most countries, the share of informal caregivers varies, sometimes markedly, among the three surveys. As for the sex of caregivers, while confirming the well-known higher prevalence of caregivers among women than among men, large variations emerge across the three surveys in most countries in respect of the two sexes. The takeaway message of the paper is that it is urgent to promote international concerted action in gathering comprehensive informal caregiving information and/or exploring in greater depth the different intercultural understandings of informal care itself.

Keywords

Informal caregiverLong-term careHarmonization
Type
Short Report
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , March 2023 , pp. 378 - 382
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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