Socio-economic inequality in long-term care:a comparison of three time periods in the Netherlands

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... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Abbing, Jens
Suanet, Bianca
Broese Van Groenou, Marjolein
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Reihe/Periodikum: Abbing , J , Suanet , B & Broese Van Groenou , M 2023 , ' Socio-economic inequality in long-term care : a comparison of three time periods in the Netherlands ' , Ageing and Society , vol. 43 , no. 3 , pp. 643-663 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X21000647
Schlagwörter: /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/reduced_inequalities / name=SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities / /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/no_poverty / name=SDG 1 - No Poverty
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29214684
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/c24b29e7-12c4-4e4c-b49c-4b38a0e95a2b

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.