This study explores the relationship between formal home care provided by paid professionals and spousal health outcomes. We use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, a panel of older adults living in several European countries. We match new formal home care users to non-users to eliminate baseline (t−1) differences between couples who decide to seek formal home care in t and those who do not. After considering several potentially confounding changes between baseline and t, and looking closer at specific subgroups, we conclude that in the short run, use of formal home care is unlikely to affect spousal physical or mental health.

本研究探讨了由付费专业人员提供的正式家庭护理与配偶健康结果之间的关系。我们使用来自欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查的数据，该调查由居住在几个欧洲国家的老年人组成。我们将新的正式家庭护理用户与非用户进行匹配，以消除决定在 t 期间寻求正式家庭护理的夫妇与不寻求正式家庭护理的夫妇之间的基线 (t-1) 差异。在考虑了基线和 t 之间的几个潜在混杂变化，并仔细观察特定亚组后，我们得出结论，在短期内，使用正规的家庭护理不太可能影响配偶的身体或心理健康。