Abstract
Given the trend of population ageing, the caregiving responsibility may increasingly shoulder on family and friends. Despite their contribution to the economy and healthcare system, informal caregivers are largely undervalued and face deteriorating health conditions. Studies have highlighted the negative static impact of caregiving tasks on informal carers’ health, but dynamic effects on the health of caregivers overtime have been limited. This paper bridges this gap by examining whether and how caregivers’ health evolves overtime, using 22 waves (2001-2022) of the HILDA data. It contains extensive demographics and socioeconomics information for participants aged 15 and above. Staggered difference-in-differences strategy was employed to document the dynamics of health effect (measured by SF-36 score), addressing the concerns of selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity. Results show that there is a gender-specific impact of caregiving on the mental health of women and an ignorable impact on men. However, the negative impact on mental health of women seems to be short-lived – only at transition stage. A similar negative effect was also found in those who are younger, less educated, or involved in high-intensity of caregiving tasks. A delayed and short-lived decline was noticed in physical health, and the effects are concentrated in similar socioeconomic groups as mental health. These findings suggest that the government should consider prioritizing addressing economic vulnerabilities and caregiving burden at the transition stage of caregiving by providing better social welfare resources or helping them to balance caregiving and other social roles.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Economic and Demographic Perspectives on Aging
KEYWORDS
Ageing, Caregiver, Australia, Health
