Table 2.
Study variables
| Outcome variables | Variable type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Receipt of publicly funded HHC services | Dichotomous | If there was a report of the receipt of nursing care and/or other health care services. |
| Receipt of publicly funded HMPS services | Dichotomous | If there was a report of the receipt of personal care, housework, meal preparation, or delivery, shopping, and/or respite care. |
| Explanatory Variables | ||
| Household arrangement | Categorical: alonea, partner, or ‘other adult’ | Living alone, living with a partner, or living with other adult but not with a partner. The cases when seniors were living with a partner and with other family members were included in the category “partner”. These categories were chosen on the basis of the conceptual model and according to frequency distribution. |
| Sex*partner | Interaction term | |
| Income | Categorical: low, middlea, or high | Categories were taken from the NPHS, which considers the household income adjusted for the number of household members. Grouping criteria were according to the frequency distribution of the survey variable. |
| Wave | Ordinal: 1 to 9 | The “wave” variable included in each one of the adjusted panel data models was used to observe trends in the propensity to receive HC of each type over the study time frame and the trend’s statistical significance, adjusted by covariates. |
| Health status: diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia, emphysema, cancer, and urinary incontinence. | Dichotomous | Health status was measured using dichotomous variables for several chronic conditions that may have important impacts on functional ability or that generate a need for health care services that may potentially be met at home (one variable per chronic condition). |
| More than 3 chronic conditions | Dichotomous | The presence of and interaction between multiple chronic conditions was considered through the inclusion of a binary variable if the individual indicated more than three chronic conditions. |
| Hospital | Dichotomous | If respondents had any overnight stays in a hospital in the last 12 months. |
| Disability | Dichotomous | If respondents had any long-term disabilities or handicaps. |
| Dependence | Categorical: high, middle, low, or no-dependencea | The NPHS measures need for help with five different ADLs: |
| a) High-dependence: need for help with preparing meals or with personal care (such as washing, dressing, or eating) and/or moving around inside the house. | ||
| b) Middle-dependence: no need for help with the previous two ADLs, but need for help with shopping for groceries or other necessities, and/or with doing normal, everyday housework. | ||
| c) Low-dependence: no need for help with the previously mentioned four ADLs, but need for help with heavy household chores. | ||
| d) No-dependence: no need for help with any of the above-mentioned ADLs. | ||
| Age | Continuous | In years. |
| Sex | Dichotomous | 0 = female, 1 = male. |
| Minority | Dichotomous | Self identification as member of an ethnic minority.b |
| Immigrant | Dichotomous | Self identification as an immigrant. |
| Education | Dichotomous | 0 = incomplete secondary education or lower; 1 = completed secondary education or higher. |
| Urban | Dichotomous | 0 = rural; 1 = urban. |
| Province | Categorical: NF, PEI, NS, NB, QC, ONa, MA, SK, AL, or BC. | Province of residence at the point of inclusion in the sample. |
| Social support | Categorical: low, middlea, or high social support. | This variable captured elements of emotional and social support that are not essential elements of informal caregiving, but which may affect the likelihood of the receipt of HMPS services. This categorical variable was derived from a 16-category index. |
a Indicates reference category
b Created according to the definition contained in the Canadian Employment Equity Act [47]