Valuation of informal care for the old-aged with disabilities in China—a discrete choice experiment approach

Zhan Zhao (), Shuaizhen Chen (), Fengyi Sun (), Wenjing Cheng (), Chen Chen (), Elizabeth Maitland (), Stephen Nicholas (), Jian Wang (), Lei Si () and Jialong Tan ()
Additional contact information
Zhan Zhao: Wuhan University
Shuaizhen Chen: Qingdao Laoshan District Finance Bureau
Fengyi Sun: Wuhan University
Wenjing Cheng: Pudong New Area Medical Insurance Affairs Center
Chen Chen: Wuhan University
Elizabeth Maitland: University of Liverpool
Stephen Nicholas: Australian National Institute of Management and Commerce
Jian Wang: Wuhan University
Lei Si: Western Sydney University
Jialong Tan: Wuhan University

Health Economics Review, 2025, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Background The rapidly aging population will lead to a surge in demand for long-term care services in China. Reinforced by the cultural norms, and with inadequate nursing resources and social care facilities, long-term care in China is primary the responsibility of the immediate family. Despite the central role of family caregivers, little is known about their preferences and how they value different types of caregiving tasks. This study provides new evidence on the economic valuation of informal care in the Chinese context. Methods Discrete choice experiment (DCE) and mixed logit models (MXL) were employed to measure the preferences for an economic value of different types of informal care (daily care, medical care and companion care) among old-aged adults in China. 466 participants from nationwide were recruited and interviewed. Results Among the respondents, 19.5% always chose to receive the free care package and 15.2% always chose to obtain cash compensation for informal caregiving. Of the three care tasks, participants placed the highest value on daily care (RMB48.202 ($13.26 PPP) per hour) and the lowest value on companion care (RMB18.608 ($5.12 PPP) per hour). The probability of choosing cash compensation rose when compensation increased and fells when the care time increased. The preferences for assistance varied significantly by individual’s demographic and health-related characteristics. Female respondents preferred for care packages relative to males; farmers and current caregivers preferred cash compensation; married participants had low preferences for companion care; participants from western region had low preferences for medical care. Discussion Our findings confirm the importance of cash compensation in retaining caregivers to provide informal care. The heterogeneity of preferences among different groups is significantly influenced by their sex, occupation, caregiving, marital status and region. Our study supports the promotion of cash compensation to informal caregivers and different levels of incentives for different groups of informal caregivers. Graphical Abstract

Keywords: Long-term care insurance; Informal care; Economic value; Discrete choice experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-025-00642-7 Abstract (text/html)

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:hecrev:v:15:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-025-00642-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/13561

DOI: 10.1186/s13561-025-00642-7

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics Review is currently edited by J. Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg

More articles in Health Economics Review from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().