Costs of informal care in a sample of German geriatric stroke survivors

Diana Albrecht (), Tanja Wollensak, Christian Ernst, Clemens Becker, Martin Hautzinger and Klaus Pfeiffer
Additional contact information
Diana Albrecht: Robert-Bosch-Hospital
Tanja Wollensak: Hohenheim University
Christian Ernst: Hohenheim University
Clemens Becker: Robert-Bosch-Hospital
Martin Hautzinger: Eberhard Karls University
Klaus Pfeiffer: Robert-Bosch-Hospital

European Journal of Ageing, 2016, vol. 13, issue 1, No 6, 49-61

Abstract: Abstract Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability. A large proportion of geriatric stroke survivors receive informal care. The assessment and monetary valuation of informal care should therefore constitute an essential part of any health economic analysis, but it is hardly measured in stroke caregiver studies. The aim of the current research was to estimate the amount of informal care provided by caregivers of stroke survivors aged 60 years and older and to calculate its economic value. Information about caregiving time in activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and supervision during the last 3 months was obtained from 122 caregivers by means of structured interviews. The proxy good method was applied for the monetary valuation of time. About 63 % of the stroke survivors in our sample were moderately cognitively impaired. The results showed that the majority of the main caregivers assisted in ADL and IADL. Supervision was delivered by 45.9 %. The median amount of help in ADL was 13.9, in IADL 22.2, and in supervision 13.9 h/week. The median overall amount of care was 42.8 h/week. Fifty percent were supported by additional persons (2.7 h/week). The mean overall costs of informal care were calculated at 2252 €/month. Our results reveal the high social and economic costs of informal care. The main burden of caregiving appears to be carried by the primary caregiver. Consequently, support and counseling of this group is important. Furthermore, caregiver interventions should be aimed at the mobilization of informal resources.

Keywords: Caregivers; Stroke; Informal care; Costs; Economic evaluation; Time measurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-015-0356-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:13:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1007_s10433-015-0356-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... iences/journal/10433

DOI: 10.1007/s10433-015-0356-x

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Ageing is currently edited by Marja Aartsen, Susanne Iwarsson and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel

More articles in European Journal of Ageing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().