Volume 27, Issue 3 pp. 637-646
HEALTH ECONOMICS LETTER

Income-rich and wealth-poor? The impact of measures of socio-economic status in the analysis of the distribution of long-term care use among older people

Ricardo Rodrigues

Corresponding Author

Ricardo Rodrigues

European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, Austria

Correspondence

Ricardo Rodrigues, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Berggasse 17, 1090 Vienna, Austria.

Email: [email protected]

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Stefania Ilinca

Stefania Ilinca

European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, Austria

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Andrea E. Schmidt

Andrea E. Schmidt

Austrian Public Health Institute, Stubenring, Vienna, Austria

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First published: 12 October 2017
Citations: 47

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the impact of using 2 measures of socio-economic status on the analysis of how informal care and home care use are distributed among older people living in the community. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe for 14 European countries, we estimate differences in corrected concentration indices for use of informal care and home care, using equivalised household net income and equivalised net worth (as a proxy for wealth). We also calculate horizontal inequity indices using both measures of socio-economic status and accounting for differences in need. The findings show that using wealth as a ranking variable results, as a rule, in a less pro-poor inequality of use for both informal and home care. Once differences in need are controlled for (horizontal inequity), wealth still results in a less pro-poor distribution for informal care, in comparison with income, whereas the opposite is observed for home care. Possible explanations for these differences and research and policy implications are discussed.

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