Ricardo Rodrigues

Focusing on the distinctive characteristics of the highly gendered long‐term care (LTC) sector, in this study, we analyze wages and earnings within caring sectors through an integrated theoretical approach that includes theories of ageism, compensating wage differentials, and gender‐based devaluation. To explore potential pay differentials in LTC, we use a multilevel model based on linked employer–employee data covering virtually all employees in Portugal's manufacturing and service sectors. Within caring sectors, we find evidence of a remuneration premium for LTC, although its size is sensitive to model specification. Although this pattern is consistent with partial compensation for the emotional demands associated with caring for older adults, our results also indicate that institutional wage‐setting arrangements play an important role in shaping this premium. Overall, however, a care penalty is evident for caring sectors vis‐à‐vis other sectors in the economy—with occupational penalties extending to sectoral penalties. Notably, the gender pay gap is substantially smaller in LTC than in other sectors, a pattern that coincides with wage compression at the lower end of the distribution, whereas persisting disparities at the top remain consistent with gendered and other structural wage‐setting processes among higher earners. Revealing these remunerational disparities provides policy‐relevant insights to enhance conditions and address LTC workforce needs in aging societies.

Background and Objectives: Studies on unmet needs in long-term care (LTC) have focused on specific time points and have not adopted a dynamic approach that considers changes over time. This study examined the trajectories of unmet needs for care and support with activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental ADLs (IADLs) among adults aged 50+ across European countries up to 9 years after the onset of needs. Research Design and Methods: Using the longitudinal data from the SHARE survey (2011–2022; n = 6,154), we used latent profile analysis to identify 5 trajectory types defined by time until onset of unmet needs, number of changes of state, time spent with unmet needs, ADL/IADL limitations, and age at onset of needs. These trajectories are marked by early periods of unmet needs (short-delayed met needs; long-delayed met needs; high needs and delayed), ambivalent (U-shaped met needs), or outright positive (met needs from onset). Results: An overwhelming majority of older adults experienced unmet needs at some point after the onset of needs. Multivariate analysis shows that having a cohabiting spouse/partner and higher income are associated with trajectories where care is available early on. Country-level public expenditure on LTC is also a strong determinant of belonging to different trajectories. We further explored the association between these trajectories and mortality and ADL/IADL limitations. Discussion and Implications: Results confirm the relevance of transition points, such as the time around the onset of needs, highlighting the potential role for case management and discharge teams at such transitions.

Despite shifting attitudes towards men taking up unpaid work, there remains a persistent gender gap in informal caregiving for older adults. We investigate how individual gender role attitudes of women and men influence their provision of care to parents and whether this relationship is moderated by the national context. Using data from the Generations and Gender Survey and logistic regressions with country-fixed effects to a sample of nine European countries, we find that individual gender egalitarian views correspond with a significant decreased likelihood of providing care among women, but not with an increased probability among men. While we find some support for the moderating effect of country contexts for women, their role in increasing male involvement in care appears to be limited. Changing behaviours through shifts in individual gender role attitudes alone may not be sufficient to bring about greater gender equality in care for older people.

This article investigates predictive associations between diabetes and depressive symptoms across Ireland, the United Kingdom, and four European regions. The data were obtained by merging datasets from three large prospective cohort studies—the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing, The Irish Longitudinal study on Ageing, and the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. We first applied a survival analysis design to two samples of 43 061 and 35 993 participants, investigating elevated depressive symptoms as a risk factor for diabetes, and diabetes as a risk factor for elevated depressive symptoms, respectively. We next applied a multilevel modeling approach to examine depressive symptoms before, during, and after diabetes onset across 101 799 participants. We found a bidirectional association between diabetes and depressive symptoms; however, the strength of these associations did not significantly differ between the regions (P > .01). The results also showed that individuals with newly diagnosed diabetes consistently reported higher depressive symptoms than those without diabetes, even before diagnosis. However, we observed no country-specific differences in the gradual changes in depressive symptoms regardless of participants’ diabetes status. Diabetes at baseline was associated with higher risk of developing depression; and vice versa. These associations were not moderated by geographical location. Therefore, the risks of diabetes and depressive symptoms comorbidity seem to be equal across all observed geographic regions.

Background and Objectives: This study explores the association between informal caregiving for older adults and environmentally sustainable behaviors across the 27 European Union countries, aiming to identify how the gendered and domestic nature of environmentalism relates to senior care. Research Design and Methods: Data from 41,742 respondents aged 16–74 were analyzed from the Survey of Gender Gaps in Unpaid Care, Individual and Social Activities, and conducted by a scientific consortium in 2022. Frequency of sustainable behaviors was measured across 10 indicators. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions examined associations between caregiving and sustainable behaviors, adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and attitudinal covariates. Results: Informal caregivers engaged in eco-friendly actions significantly more frequently than noncaregivers across all 10 sustainable-behavior indicators (p < 0.001). The “caregiver effect” was strongest for sustainable-consumption choices like buying eco-friendly (β = 0.16), fair-trade (β = 0.15), and used products (β = 0.17), and weaker for household practices such as recycling (β = 0.05) and mindful resource consumption (β = 0.06). Caregivers attained higher composite environmental behavior scores (33.93 ± 8.23) than noncaregivers (31.88 ± 8.00; p < 0.001). This association remained robust after adjusting for gender, age, education, employment, household size, attitudes, and other covariates. Caregiving had the strongest association with buying used items (β = 0.20) and eco-friendly products (β = 0.14). Country-level analyses revealed consistent caregiver versus noncaregiver differences, with the largest gaps in Southern and Eastern Europe. Discussion and Implications: This is the first large-scale cross-national study that demonstrates a consistent association between older-adult caregiving and a wide range of environmentally sustainable behaviors. Results suggest the experience of caring for a vulnerable family member is closely related to a broader sense of social and environmental responsibility. Caregivers’ heightened engagement in sustainable consumption positions them as potential early adopters and change makers. Findings highlight new avenues for environmental education and caregiver support initiatives that synergistically promote interpersonal and environmental care.

Long-term care (LTC) systems across Europe vary considerably in their provision and organization of care, and in their division of responsibility between the state, market and family. Taking root in welfare typologies, the “care regime” literature has sought to categorize LTC systems according to common factors as a way to understand, compare and analyze the impact of care policies across countries. We provide an overview of the literature on care regimes, highlighting the concept of (de)familialization throughout and focusing on the family, the state and market’s role in providing care, as well as the intersection of care with labor market and migration policies. We discuss how care regimes have evolved over time and present trends in the prevalence of formal and informal care using longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, before concluding with future research directions.

Objectives: We present a dynamic view of gender patterns in informal caregiving across Europe in a context of sociodemographic transformations. We aim to answer the following research questions: (a) has the gender gap in informal caregiving changed; (b) if so, is this due to changes among women and/or men; and (c) has the gender care gap changed differently across care regimes? Methods: Multilevel growth curve models are applied to gendered trajectories of informal caregiving of a panel sample of 50+ Europeans, grouped into 5-year cohorts and followed across 5 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe survey, stratified by sex and adjusted for several covariates. Results: For men in cohorts born more recently, there is a decrease in the prevalence of informal care outside the household, whereas cohort trajectories for women are mostly stable. Prevalence of care inside the household has increased for later-born cohorts for all without discernible changes to the gender care gap. Gender care gaps overall widened among later-born cohorts in the Continental cluster, whereas they remained constant in Southern Europe, and narrowed in the Nordic cluster. Discussion: We discuss the cohort effects found in the context of gender differences in employment and care around retirement age, as well as possible demographic explanations for these. The shift from care outside to inside the household, where it mostly consists of spousal care, may require different policies to support carers, whose age profile and possible care burden seem to be increasing.