Socio-economic inequality in long-term care: a comparison of three time periods in the Netherlands
2023 (English)In: Ageing & Society, ISSN 0144-686X, E-ISSN 1469-1779, Vol. 43, no 3, p. 643-663Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
As a result of the rapid ageing of societies, meeting the demands for long-term care has become increasingly difficult. In the Netherlands, informal care is recognised as a key element to compensate for cut-backs in formal care provision. Formal, informal and privately paid long-term care services, however, are not used equally across socio-economic status (SES) groups and whether these inequalities have been reduced or exacerbated over time has not been researched. This study investigates to what extent educational and income inequalities in the use of formal, informal and privately paid care have changed over time. Data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) was used from three points in time: 1995 (N = 787), 2005 (N = 550) and 2015 (N = 473). Participants were between 75 and 85 years of age and living independently. The results indicate that lower SES groups are consistently more likely to use formal and informal care, and less likely to use privately paid care compared to higher SES groups. An increase in inequality was only found in the use of informal care; while informal care use is stable among lower SES groups, it decreases steeply among higher SES groups. These findings highlight the importance of education for explaining variation and changes over time in care use. Governmental efforts to mobilise informal care-givers might be outweighed by trends towards less long-term care. Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cambridge University Press , 2023. Vol. 43, no 3, p. 643-663
Keywords [en]
education, formal care, informal care, long-term care, privately paid care, socio-economic inequality, socio-economic status, Amsterdam [North Holland], Netherlands, North Holland, comparative study, health services, socioeconomic status, aged, aging, article, controlled study, female, human, human experiment, long term care, major clinical study, male, social status
National Category
Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-209273DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X21000647ISI: 000742516900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85109866908OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-209273DiVA, id: diva2:1911594
2024-11-082024-11-082025-02-27Bibliographically approved