Formal and informal care: trajectories of home care use among Danish older adults
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Formal and informal care : trajectories of home care use among Danish older adults. / Kjær, Agnete Aslaug; Siren, Anu.
I: Ageing and Society, Bind 40, Nr. 11, 2020, s. 2495-2518.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Formal and informal care
T2 - trajectories of home care use among Danish older adults
AU - Kjær, Agnete Aslaug
AU - Siren, Anu
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - To adjust future care policies for an ageing population, policy makers need to understand when and why older adults rely on different sources of care (e.g. informal support versus formal services). However, previous scholars have proposed competing conceptualisations of the link between formal and informal care, and empirical examinations have often lacked a dynamic approach. In this study, we applied an analytical method (sequence analysis), allowing for an exploratory and dynamic description of care utilisation. Based on 15 years of data from 473 community-dwelling older individuals in Denmark, we identified four distinct clusters of care trajectories. The probability of belonging to each cluster varied with predisposing factors (such as age and gender), needs factors (such as dependence in activities of daily living and medical conditions) and enabling factors (such as co-habitation and contact with adult children). A key finding was that trajectories characterised by sporadic use of informal care were associated with low needs and strong social relations, whereas trajectories characterised by reliance on formal care were associated with high needs and limited contact with children. Taken together, our findings provide new evidence on the associations between care use and multiple determining factors. The dynamic approach to studying care use reveals that sources of individual care utilisation change over time as the individual and societal determinants change.
AB - To adjust future care policies for an ageing population, policy makers need to understand when and why older adults rely on different sources of care (e.g. informal support versus formal services). However, previous scholars have proposed competing conceptualisations of the link between formal and informal care, and empirical examinations have often lacked a dynamic approach. In this study, we applied an analytical method (sequence analysis), allowing for an exploratory and dynamic description of care utilisation. Based on 15 years of data from 473 community-dwelling older individuals in Denmark, we identified four distinct clusters of care trajectories. The probability of belonging to each cluster varied with predisposing factors (such as age and gender), needs factors (such as dependence in activities of daily living and medical conditions) and enabling factors (such as co-habitation and contact with adult children). A key finding was that trajectories characterised by sporadic use of informal care were associated with low needs and strong social relations, whereas trajectories characterised by reliance on formal care were associated with high needs and limited contact with children. Taken together, our findings provide new evidence on the associations between care use and multiple determining factors. The dynamic approach to studying care use reveals that sources of individual care utilisation change over time as the individual and societal determinants change.
KW - care utilisation
KW - clustering
KW - sequence analysis
KW - transitions
U2 - 10.1017/S0144686X19000771
DO - 10.1017/S0144686X19000771
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85068521266
VL - 40
SP - 2495
EP - 2518
JO - Ageing & Society
JF - Ageing & Society
SN - 0144-686X
IS - 11
ER -
ID: 241485376