Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/308458 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Citation: 
[Journal:] The European Journal of Health Economics [ISSN:] 1618-7601 [Volume:] 23 [Issue:] 9 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Berlin, Heidelberg [Year:] 2022 [Pages:] 1535-1545
Publisher: 
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
This study evaluates the mental and physical strain experienced by informal caregivers. Econometric problems due to individuals selecting themselves into informal care provision are tackled using informative and detailed data on more than 2 million insureds from the largest sickness fund in Germany and applying the propensity score matching technique to estimate the average effect of treatment on the treated. This effect indicates how carers have fared relative to a counterfactual situation in which they would have been non-carers. The radius matching is applied in combination with a strict caliper to obtain a high degree of observational similarity between caring and non-caring individuals. The findings suggest that carers take more psychoactive drugs as well as analgesics and gastrointestinal agents. Females consume about 5 daily defined doses of antidepressants more when they care for dependent relatives. In case of tranquilizers and analgesics, the estimated effect for females amounts about 1 daily defined dose. Considering gastrointestinal agents, the effect amounts to 2 daily defined doses. Thus, informal caregiving appears to be a burdensome task with implications for both mental and physical health.
Subjects: 
Informal care
Burden
Drugs
Propensity score matching
JEL: 
I10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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