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. 2023 Aug 17;78(11):1935–1946. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbad118

Table 1.

Weighted Sample Characteristics by Caregiving Arrangements, Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (Pooled 2015 and 2019 Samples)

Disability status Reports difficulty with activities of daily living No difficulty with ADLs
Caregiving arrangements Care gap:
Neither family/unpaid care nor paid care
Only family/ unpaid care Only paid care Both family/unpaid and paid care Live in nursing home No care needed
Family characteristics
Family structure
 Has partner and child(ren) 50.7a,b,c,d 56.0 22.4 44.8 15.4 66.0
 Has partner, no child(ren) 3.7a,b,d 4.5 3.9 3.8 0.9 4.3
 No partner, has child(ren) 37.6a,b,c,d 34.6 58.9 44.0 56.9 22.8
 No partner, no children 8.0a,b,c,d 5.0 14.8 7.4 26.8 6.9
Demographic characteristics
Gender
 Women 58.3a,b,c,d 57.1 71.2 65.5 66.6 53.1
 Men 41.8a,b,c,d 42.9 28.8 34.5 33.4 46.9
Age
 50–54 5.5a,b,c,d 3.7 0.6 1.2 0.3 10.7
 55–59 17.6 a,b,c,d 13.2 4.1 4.9 9.0 26.3
 60–64 10.7a,b,c,d 7.3 3.3 4.9 3.8 16.9
 65–69 13.3 a,b,c,d 9.0 4.8 5.8 5.0 14.6
 70–74 12.8 a,b,c,d 12.0 9.5 8.2 6.9 11.7
 75–79 13.1a,b,c,d 13.8 9.1 12.7 7.4 9.3
 80+ 27.1 a,b,c,d 41.0 68.6 62.3 67.6 10.5
Socioeconomic characteristics
Education
 Less than upper secondary education 45.2 a,b,c,d 65.4 63.0 57.1 59.0 36.6
 Upper secondary and vocational training 40.3 a,b,c,d 27.1 28.4 32.3 26.8 41.4
 Tertiary education 14.5 a,b,c,d 7.5 8.7 10.6 14.2 22.1
Total wealth (Euros)
 ≤49,999 37.5 a,b,c,d 40.9 43.0 42.3 75.7 25.3
 50k–149,999 22.1 a,b,c,d 29.5 21.5 20.7 11.3 21.8
 150k–500k 32.1a,b,c,d 22.9 30.7 29.4 9.7 38.8
 ≥500k 8.3a,b,c,d 6.8 4.8 7.5 3.4 14.1
Mean (SD)#ADL difficulty 1.72 (0.06)a,b,c,d 2.65 (0.07) 2.61 (0.08) 3.49 (0.07) 2.44 (0.15) NA
Region
 Northern Europe 4.9 a,b,c,d 2.7 5.6 1.7 5.6 5.4
 Western Europe 52.3a,b,c,d 27.8 58.1 57.6 63.4 45.4
 Southern Europe 22.6 a,b,c,d 43.0 27.9 30.3 22.5 32.4
 Eastern Europe 19.6 a,b,c,d 25.7 4.6 8.1 7.2 15.4
 Israel 0.7 a,b,c,d 0.8 3.8 2.3 1.3 1.3
Sample size (%) 6,886
(6.1)
3,796
(3.1)
959
(0.9)
1,536
(1.5)
1,178
(0.9)
98,608 (87.5)

Notes: The analytic sample is all respondents aged 50 and older. The total N = 112,963.

We tested whether respondents with a care gap differ significantly from the following groups:

arespondents with only family/unpaid care

bthose who received only paid care

cthose who received both family/unpaid and paid care, and

dthose living in nursing homes (p < .05).