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Use of formal and informal care services among older people in Ireland and France

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Abstract

This paper focuses on current use of elderly care services in Ireland and France. In light of health care resource allocation problems, it is important to know the level of current use of home care on which future projections may be based. With the availability of SHARE (Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe) data, it is now possible to analyse this process and estimate the relationship between formal and informal care, and our econometric model tests for endogeneity of informal care. Previous research has not included Ireland into the analysis. Given that Ireland has a younger population base, lessons could be learned from countries with older populations, such as France. Results suggest informal care is endogenous and negatively linked with formal care in the pooled (France and Ireland) model. There is a higher unmet need for care in Ireland. These results have important policy implications for Ireland as the demographic makeup will change from 11 per cent to 15 per cent of older people over the next 10 years.

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Notes

  1. Ireland was not included in the first wave of SHARE, and hence this is the first time to explore the data. France was chosen as a comparator as the two countries are relatively similar in terms of focus on family, yet in France there is a more structured process in terms of family vis-à-vis the state. Furthermore, in Ireland 11 per cent of people are currently over 65, compared to over 16 per cent in France.

  2. Test between the instrument and the endogenous variable is provided through the F-test. If the coefficients are not jointly zero then the instruments are relevant and valid. Our instruments are significantly associated with the endogenous variable in the OLS equation and passed the F-test (Table 3).

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Acknowledgments

Funding gratefully acknowledged from CNSA (Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie). This paper uses data from SHARE release 2.3.0, as of 13 November 2009. SHARE data collection in 2004–2007 was primarily funded by the European Commission through its 5th and 6th framework programmes (project numbers QLK6-CT-2001- 00360, RII-CT- 2006-062193, CIT5-CT-2005-028857). Additional funding was by the US National Institute on Aging (Grant numbers U01 AG09740-13S2, P01 AG005842, P01 AG08291, P30 AG12815, Y1-AG-4553-01, OGHA 04-064, R21 AG025169). Irish SHARE sample was collected with the funding support of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Brenda Gannon

  2. INSERM, U912 (SE4S), Marseille, France

    Bérengère Davin

  3. Université Aix Marseille, IRD, UMR-S912, Marseille, France

    Bérengère Davin

  4. Observatoire Régional de la Santé, Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France

    Bérengère Davin

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  1. Brenda Gannon
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  2. Bérengère Davin
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Correspondence to Brenda Gannon.

Additional information

Research was conducted at NUI Galway while B. Davin was a visiting post-doctoral fellow under the FLARE (Future Leaders of Ageing Research in Europe) scholarship.

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Gannon, B., Davin, B. Use of formal and informal care services among older people in Ireland and France. Eur J Health Econ 11, 499–511 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-010-0247-1

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