The quality of life of female informal caregivers: from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea

Cinzia Di Novi, Rowena Jacobs and Matteo Migheli ()
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Rowena Jacobs: Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK

No 084cherp, Working Papers from Centre for Health Economics, University of York

Abstract: We analyse the impact of the provision of care on the health and quality of life (QoL) of mature 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’ quality of life 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.

Keywords: informal caregiving; quality of life; self-assessed health; Europe (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 I10 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2013-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem, nep-eur and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chy:respap:84cherp

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