Abstract
This study analyses whether care providing strategies for non-institutionalized older adults have changed in the context of a new system of long-term care that emanated from the 2006 “Dependency Act”, and a lingering economic crisis. The Spanish sample of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (waves 2006 and 2013) is employed to analyse how different individual and household factors affect care strategies, distinguishing between informal (co-resident and non-resident) carers, formal carers and combined formal and informal care, using descriptive statistics and multinomial logit regression. Results show that availability, co-residence and the proximity of children are the main determinants of informal care provision to elders in need. Some externalization of informal care from the domestic domain also took place between 2006 and 2013 as well as an increase in multiple-care arrangements. In the discussion, we comment on why the new Spanish care system that was developed during the economic boom but implemented during the bust years may have consolidated informal care through the economic compensation of mainly family carers. Future research should investigate whether the increase in combined formal and informal care is because of preferences of potential family caregivers or due to a lack of alternatives.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundBetween 1999 and 2013, the population aged 65 and older in Spain resident in private households increased by 1.6 million, from 6.4 to 8.0 million people1 due to decliningJ
The data source allows the identification of informal carers (Table 1), due to the small sample size we reduced the number of kinship categories and analysed all ages of the older dependent population together
The aim of our study was to ascertain whether care providing strategies changed between 2006 and 2013 in Spain in the context of a new system of long-term care (LTC) and an enduring economic crisis
Summary
Between 1999 and 2013, the population aged 65 and older in Spain resident in private households increased by 1.6 million, from 6.4 to 8.0 million people due to declining. Zueras old-age mortality and larger cohorts entering old age. As a proportion of the total population, the increase in older people was only modest (from 16% to 17%) due to an influx of immigrants and increase in births until the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. Despite improving survival rates, the proportion of non-institutionalized disabled population receiving personal care in this age group increased from 17% (1.1 million) to 23% (1.9 million).. Population ageing has created a challenge for policy makers in Spain to create a viable long-term care system Despite improving survival rates, the proportion of non-institutionalized disabled population receiving personal care in this age group increased from 17% (1.1 million) to 23% (1.9 million). Population ageing has created a challenge for policy makers in Spain to create a viable long-term care system
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