Others

PhD Thesis

TITLE

The Hidden Social Impact of Informal Care in Elderly People

AUTHOR

Luz María Peña Longobardo

SUPERVISORS

Dr. Juan Oliva Moreno

Dr. Álvaro Hidalgo Vega

ABSTRACT

The thesis tries to look at the part of the hidden social impact that society has to face due to caregiving. Generally, the analysis carried out in this thesis points out the high importance of the role supported by family and friends to elderly population and the doubtless hidden social costs (in terms of losses in health, quality of life and social welfare) that society has to support and face. Firstly, it estimates the average productivity of long-term care in terms of health related quality of life (HRQOL) in the elderly in United Kingdom. The results suggested that when the health gets worse, the fact of receiving simultaneously formal and informal care may improve the HRQOL of elderly. Secondly, it is estimated the impact on caregivers' health, professional and social lives involved in informal care. It is also estimated the main factors that explain the variability of caregiving time, comparing the results of the two different chronic diseases studied (one with cognitive impairment and the other with physical impairment). The findings suggested that the higher the level of dependency of the person cared for, the more informal care hours provided and the higher workload supported by caregivers. Furthermore, informal care seems to be complementary to formal in-home care, while it seems to be substitutive to formal out-of-home services.Finally, it obtains an approximation of the monetary value of non-professional (informal) care provided to disabled people living within a household in Spain. For this purpose, it is assessed informal resources using three different approaches: the proxy good method, the opportunity cost method and the contingent valuation method. The monetary value ranged is equivalent to 1.73%-4.90% of the Gross Domestic Product for 2008.

DATA AND VENUE OF DEFENSE

29^th July 2015 at 12.00 am.

Faculty of Social Science and Law in Toledo. Spain