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The direct cost of disability of community-dwelling older persons in Belgium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2020

Sophie Cès Open the ORCID record for Sophie Cès [Opens in a new window] ,
Anne-Sophie Lambert ,
Johanna de Almeida Mello ,
Anja Declercq ,
Niko Speybroeck ,
Lieven Annemans  and
Jean Macq
Sophie Cès*
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche Santé et Société, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Anne-Sophie Lambert
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche Santé et Société, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Johanna de Almeida Mello
Affiliation:
LUCAS – Centrum voor Zorgonderzoek en Consultancy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Anja Declercq
Affiliation:
LUCAS – Centrum voor Zorgonderzoek en Consultancy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Centrum voor Sociologisch Onderzoek, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Niko Speybroeck
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche Santé et Société, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Lieven Annemans
Affiliation:
Universitair Centrum voor Verpleegkunde en Vroedkunde, Universiteit Gent, Ghent, Belgium
Jean Macq
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche Santé et Société, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Current policies aim to promote and develop community-based support of disabled elderly persons, yet knowledge of the cost implications is insufficient. Thus, we aimed to estimate, for three disability profiles and three presence levels of the main informal carer (none, non-cohabitant, cohabitant), the cost of formal and informal support currently provided at home in Belgium. In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 5,642 disabled elderly persons living at home was established between 2010 and 2016. The administrative database of the Belgian public healthcare insurance was merged with other prospective data on social care service utilisation, informal care and disability. The total cost of formal support ranged from €725 to €1,344 (on average, per person, per month), depending on the three disability profiles identified. Twenty-five per cent of persons with the highest level of disability (important functional limitations and cognitive impairment) and helped by a cohabitant carer, had a low total cost of formal support: below €382 per month. Informal care represented the main cost component of total support costs in the three disability profiles (between 64 and 76%). To prevent the worsening of situations of disabled older persons and their informal carers, better detection of seriously disabled persons with low levels of formal support is crucial.

Keywords

disabled personsagedcaregiverscosts and cost analysislong-term care
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 10 , October 2021 , pp. 2214 - 2241
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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