Abstract
This paper had two aims. Firstly, to provide a broader view of the profile of non-professional caregivers in Europe, and secondly, to estimate the economic value of the non-professional caregiving. The European Quality of Life Survey 2016/2017, carried out by Eurofound, was used. The target population of the survey was adults who care for a relative or friend in a total of 33 European countries. The opportunity cost method was used to estimate the economic value of caregiving, in which two of the activities forgone were analysed: paid activities (restricted to caregivers who were employed), for which the average gross wage of each country was used; and unpaid activities, for which the minimum gross wage of each country was used. There were more than 76 million non-professional caregivers in Europe that provide care for a relative or friend. This figure represents 12.7% of the population in Europe. The estimated time devoted to non-professional care in Europe reached 72 301.5 million hours in 2016. Sharp differences were found among countries. The economic value of that time is estimated at 576 000 million of euros, which represented about 3.63% of Europe's gross domestic product (GDP). This study shows the very important number of resources dedicated to the non-professional care of dependent people and their economic valuation. These results may be helpful in prospective analyses estimating future needs on professional and non-professional and for designing of long-term care (LTC) policies in Europe.
Highlights
All health insurance systems seek to reduce uncertainty among individuals facing the advent of a disease or injury, to distribute risks and to facilitate payment for the healthcare required in these situations
It might lead to think that, because of the high heterogeneity among long-term care (LTC) systems, it would be advisable to establish a proper balance between the two types of caregiving
Health systems have to respect norms of social justice, and have to allocate resources efficiently, avoiding their overuse. These aspects have been widely studied in relation to healthcare systems,[1,2,3,4,5] but they are important for the long-term care (LTC) system.[6,7,8]
Summary
All health insurance systems seek to reduce uncertainty among individuals facing the advent of a disease or injury, to distribute risks and to facilitate payment for the healthcare required in these situations. Health systems have to respect norms of social justice (equity), and have to allocate resources efficiently, avoiding their overuse (moral hazard). These aspects have been widely studied in relation to healthcare systems,[1,2,3,4,5] but they are important for the long-term care (LTC) system.[6,7,8]. The social policies developed during the time of the transition of political systems and later and the factors that have influenced each country have resulted in a great heterogeneity in the characterization of their welfare systems, including the LTC system.[13,14,15,16]
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