Changes in health care expenditure after the loss of a spouse: data on 6,487 older widows and widowers in the Netherlands.

In ageing populations, informal care holds great potential to limit rising health care expenditure. The majority of informal care is delivered by spouses. The loss of informal care due to the death of the spouse could therefore increase expenditure levels for formal care.To investigate the impact of the death of the spouse on health care expenditure by older people through time. Additionally, to examine whether the impact differs between socio-demographic groups, and what health services are affected most.Longitudinal data on health care expenditure (from July 2007 through 2010) from a regiona... Mehr ...