Ricardo Rodrigues

University of Lisbon | UL

Current research on determinants, prevalence, and effects of informal care on health assumes that survey instruments can appropriately identify informal care providers. We aimed to investigate systematic differences across Europe in reporting spousal care between caregivers and cared-for persons and their possible effects on associations between in...

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 elder care. Research Design and Methods Data from 41,742 respondents aged...

Aim This study investigated the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), social participation, national health expenditure per capita (NHEPC), and their interactions, with the risk of developing multimorbidity in later life. Subject and methods Data were from 25,884 adults aged 50+ from 15 countries in the Survey of Health, Agein...

Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to multimorbidity, but evidence from longitudinal research on potential macro and micro-level protective factors is lacking. We investigated the associations between ACEs, social participation, national health expenditure, and their interactions, with the risk of developing multimorbidity i...

Background Although care use should parallel needs, enabling and predisposing circumstances including the socio-demographic inequities of socioeconomic status (SES), gender, or isolation often intervene to diminish care. We examine whether availability of state-funded medical and support services at home can rebalance these individual and social in...

Objectives: We present a dynamic view of gender patterns in informal caregiving across Europe in a context of socio-demographic transformations. It aims to answer the following research questions: i) has the gender gap in informal caregiving changed; ii) if so, is this due to changes among women and/or men; iii) has the gender care gap changed dif...

Old age disabilities are more common among women than men, and adverse socioeconomic conditions are associated with a higher prevalence of disabilities among older adults. The goal of this study was to complete a mapping review of the available evidence assessing the extent to which the observed sex differences in older adults’ disabilities can be...

Background: Many patients experienced restricted access to healthcare during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study is among the first to provide systematic evidence on the existence of subjective unmet needs (SUN) in different population groups during the pandemic. Methods: Using data on individuals aged 20-64 and living i...

Demographic aging has led to an increase in the number of people with multiple needs requiring different types of care delivered by formal and informal carers. The distribution of care tasks between formal and informal carers has a significant impact on the well-being of carers and on how efficiently care is delivered to users. The study has two ai...

Persistent inequalities in access to community-based support limit opportunities for independent living for older people with care needs in Europe. Our study focuses on investigating how gender, widowhood and living arrangement associate with the probability of receiving home and community-based care, while accounting for the shorter-term associati...

Ensuring distributive fairness in the long-term care sector is vitally important in the context of global population ageing and rising care needs. This study, part of the DETERMIND (DETERMinants of quality of life, care and costs, and consequences of INequalities in people with Dementia and their carers) programme, investigates socioeconomic inequa...

To develop effective social policies to support older people in need of long-term care and their carers, it is highly important to understand the existing context in which the respective social policy should intervene. Countries differ in how care is organized. In the field of social policy, these differences are captured with concepts such as the...

Background Most countries in Europe require out-of-pocket payments (OPPs) for nursing homes based on users’ income and often assets. This was also the case in Austria until 2018 when asset-based contributions to residential care —denoted the ‘Pflegeregress’ – were abolished, leaving a shortfall in revenue. We aim to determine how the Pflegeregress...

Background Unmet care needs are usually defined in terms of receiving sufficient help in instrumental activities and activities of daily living. Research on unmet needs is mostly based on quantitative data. Older persons’ and informal carers’ views and experiences have received less attention. Methods In this paper, we rely on a definition of unme...

Unlabelled: As the population of Europe grows older, one crucial issue is how the incidence and prevalence of disabilities are developing over time in the older population. In this study, we compare cohort-specific disability trajectories in old age across subsequent birth cohorts in Europe, during the period 2004-2017.We used data from seven wave...

Objectives We develop a framework for the analysis of pathways into intergenerational caregiving to older people provided by family members using life course concepts of key turning events in life, cumulative processes and linked lives within the family realm. Methods Using Framework Analysis, we analyse semi-structured qualitative interviews from...

Increased demand for long-term care (LTC) services alongside precarious working conditions has resulted in labour shortages in the LTC sector, which has led to an increasing share of workers of migrant origin filling these jobs. Previous research on migrant care workers has also highlighted the seeming gap in working conditions relative to native w...

Background Most countries in Europe require out-of-pocket payments (OPPs) for nursing homes based on users’ income and often assets. This was also the case in Austria until 2018 when asset-based contributions to residential care —denoted the ‘Pflegeregress’ – were abolished, leaving a shortfall in revenue. We aim to determine how the Pflegeregress...

Much attention has been paid to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on long-term care but the impact on informal caregivers has remained speculative. In Austria, like in other European countries, informal care is carried out overwhelmingly by (non-cohabiting) relatives. Limited care services available during the pandemic, social-distancing, increa...

Background and objectives:We develop a framework for the analysis of pathways into family caregiving to older people defined around life course concepts such as key turning events in life, cumulative processes and linked lives within the family realm that influence decisions around intergenerational family caregiving.Research design and methods:Usi...

Every year, cumulatively more than four million people in Europe experience homelessness. Efforts to reduce the phenomenon have largely failed – in the last decade there has been a trend towards increasing numbers of people sleeping rough in most European countries. Against this backdrop, this Policy Brief highlights key issues of national policies...

This policy brief aims to present a multi-dimensional framework that builds on a rights-based approach to monitor and review the extent to which states upheld the right to housing and ensure access to adequate housing, social security and healthcare. The framework is being developed as part of an ongoing research project that aims to provide a comp...

Estimations suggest that more than 400,000 people sleep in the streets of European cities per night. More than 4 million people experience homelessness per year. Efforts to reduce homelessness have largely failed as the number of people sleeping rough has been increasing or remained stable in most European countries in the last decade. Against this...

The introduction of reforms to the Austrian pension system in the early 2000s resulted in a significant increase in the employment rate of older working age women. This increase was highly differentiated along education groups, with increases in employment rates concentrated among those with secondary and tertiary education. Logistic regression ana...

Purpose Independent health impacts of sex or social circumstances are well-studied, particularly among older adults. Less theorized or examined is how combinations or intersections of these underpin differential health effects. Nevertheless, and often without naming it as such, an intersectional framework aligns with studies of social determinants...

Much attention has been paid to the care workforce and care home residents during the COVID-19 crisis, whereas the impact on informal caregivers has remained speculative. In Austria, like in other European countries, informal care is carried out overwhelmingly by (non-cohabiting) relatives. Limited care services available during the crisis, social-...

The majority of public and private expenditure is spent on residential care. At an individual level, out-of-pocket payments (OPP) can represent a sizeable share of an individual’s income. In most European countries, OPPs for residential care are income-related, but in some instances, assets or even relatives’ financial resources may be taken into c...

The aim of this policy brief is to present and discuss two tools that can contribute to monitor the evolution of policies and their outcomes for older people in Europe: the Rights of Older People Index (from hereafter ROPI or the Index) and the Scoreboard on Outcome Indicators. Together, ROPI and the Scoreboard fill an important gap as multi-dim...

Integrated care is of particular relevance to the delivery of long-term care services for older people in order to optimally respond to their often highly diversified health and social care needs. This study set out to develop a comprehensive overview of long-term care in Portugal from a services delivery perspective that dually captures health and...

Countries across Europe, and indeed around the world, are confronting the social, economic and political challenges of an ageing population. Among the most pressing of these challenges is securing adequate and sustainable long-term care and support for older people. There is growing consensus that long-term care services should look beyond a medica...

User choice in care for older people has assumed that care is like any other commodity; which is in contrast with the concept of care defined by the feminist and ethics of care literature, which includes a relational component beyond care tasks – caring relationships. This study aims to understand how caring relationships impact the decisions of ol...

Continuity, comprehensiveness and coordination are key functions of primary care, as set out in the Declaration of Alma-Ata. Therefore, primary care systems must play a key role in integrating care not only within but also across health and social care systems. In addition, over the past decade, it has become apparent that primary care professional...

Die Studie zu den Arbeitsbedingungen in der Langzeitpflege aus Sicht der Beschäftigten basiert auf dem international eingesetzten NORDCARE-Fragebogen. Diese Sonderauswertung für Oberösterreich wurde im Auftrag der AK Oberösterreich erstellt.

This policy brief is the first of a series of two policy briefs which are based on the results of the NORDCARE survey in Austria. The NORDCARE study aimed to investigate the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in three regions (Vienna, Upper Austria, Salzburg) in Austria. Given a con...

The NORDCARE study is based on the international NORDCARE survey and investigates the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in three regions (Vienna, Upper Austria, Salzburg) in Austria. The report shows insights into the sociodemographic characteristics of the LTC workforce, employmen...

Recent years have witnessed greater involvement of European Union (EU) organisations in health communication campaigns that address chronic diseases and that are designed for implementation in multiple countries. This development raises challenges inherent in adapting the design of public health communication campaigns to multi-national settings. T...

Key design principles (KDPs) for a cross-border public health campaign. (DOCX)

The NORDCARE study is based on the international NORDCARE survey and investigates the working conditions of the long-term care (LTC) workforce in the home care and residential care sector in three regions (Vienna, Upper Austria, Salzburg) in Austria. The report shows insights into the sociodemographic characteristics of the LTC workforce, employmen...

Diese Studie basiert auf einer repräsentativen Umfrage unter 1.110 Beschäftigten in der Langzeitpflege und beschreibt die spezifischen Problemlagen und Verbesserungsbereiche aus Sicht der Beschäftigten im mobilen und stationären Bereich der Langzeitpflege.

As documented in the previous two working papers in this series, the research team developed a conceptual framework for a Human Rights-Based Approach to long-term care following a literature review and a validation workshop with international experts. The framework incorporates the following three domains: 1) Desired outcomes: fulfilment of rights;...

Countries across Europe are confronting the social, economic and political challenges of an ageing population. Among the most pressing of these challenges is the organisation and financing of long-term care and support for older people. While people are living longer than previous generations, they are not necessarily living these additional years...

Possible inequalities and inequities in long-term care (LTC) use have thus far been overlooked in health policy. Two recent studies shed light on inequalities and inequities in the use of home care services and informal care, by socio-economic status, across Europe. Evidence suggests that use of home care services mostly reflects need and is theref...

In contrast with the case of health care, distributional fairness of long-term care (LTC) services in Europe has received limited attention. Given the increased relevance of LTC in the social policy agenda it is timely to evaluate the evidence on inequality and horizontal inequity by socio-economic status (SES) in the use of LTC and to identify the...

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 concentratio...

This working paper presents the results of a literature review carried out in the first work package of the project, "From disability rights towards a rights-based approach to long-term care in Europe: Building an Index of rights-based policies for older people". The authors investigate the key concepts of the movement to secure the rights of peopl...

The CEQUA Network aims to support long-term care (LTC) decision-makers by identifying evidence about key strategies for reducing the need for care and for improving the quality and efficiency of care systems. A range of country reports about LTC policies have therefore been published. This country report provides an overview of general framework co...

The distribution of resources for older people to actively participate in society has received limited attention in ageing research despite growing relevance. We provide a compendium of indicators based on the analysis of large-scale surveys (including ESS, SHARE, SHARELIFE, SILC) with the aim to investigate gender and socio-economic inequalities i...

The active and healthy ageing measure reported here is calculated for the 28 European Union countries, with a specific focus on the current generation of older people and by using the latest data from multiple surveys. It covers diverse aspects of active and healthy ageing, by measuring older people’s contribution with respect to not just employmen...

The objectives of this Policy Brief are twofold: Firstly, it aims to draw some lessons for the design and improvement of care leave policies in six countries (Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Canada). Secondly, it highlights the challenges involved in implementing care leave regulations in practice. The findings in this Policy B...

In response to a greater need to conciliate care and work for those with sick, disabled or frail family members, some countries in Europe have put regulations in place that allow employees to provide and/or organize care for family members while remaining attached to their workplace. The objectives of this Policy Brief are twofold. Firstly, it aims...

Active ageing, defined by the WHO as the “process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age”, crucially depends on opportunities and resources that are available to individuals throughout their life course. Therefore, some population groups face higher barriers than others i...

Religious attendance is an important element of activity for older Europeans, especially in more traditional countries. The aim of the analysis is to explore whether it could be an element contributing to active ageing as well as to assess differences between the religious activity of older individuals with and without multimorbidity defined as an...

Little attention has been given to the involvement in formal learning activities (FLA) in the older population when considering different health statuses. The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which possible predictors (derived from previous research as well as a conceptual model) of FLA differ for older people in poor and good health....

Due to an increased prevalence of chronic diseases, older individuals may experience a deterioration of their health condition in older ages, limiting their capacity for social engagement and in turn their well-being in later life. Focusing on care provision to grandchildren and (older) relatives (‘informal care’) as forms of engagement, this paper...

The study takes into account the importance of contextual factors related to a country's welfare states tradition ("care regime"), including public health and social care services, as well as the country's labour market situation, particularly of women. In the study seven key objectives for policymakers are defined, which need to be considered when...

This Research Note is divided into two parts. The first part analyses the ad hoc module on the transition from work to retirement, examining the relative number of men and women in the EU in receipt of old-age pensions before they reach 65 (the official age of retirement in most Member States), the extent to which they continue to work both before...

The path to deinstitutionalisation, the hallmark strategy of social and care services for individuals with limited autonomy, has been marked by idiosyncratic developments across European countries. The present Policy Brief capitalizes on this cross-country variability in order to draw lessons from experiences and strategies, which proved to be effe...

This study addresses one of the most puzzling dilemmas in the political, economic and professional development of long-­term care over the past few decades – the question whether market‐oriented governance based on competition and choice is compatible with the most desirable and allegedly most effective delivery of integrated long‐term care.

This study addresses one of the most puzzling dilemmas in the political, economic and professional development of long-­term care over the past few decades – the question whether market‐oriented governance based on competition and choice is compatible with the most desirable and allegedly most effective delivery of integrated long‐term care.

The rising number of private care arrangements in which live-in migrant care workers are engaged as a functional equivalent to family care calls for special attention by policy makers and formal long-term care providers on their implications for quality assurance and professional standards in the long-term care sector. Austria is one of the first c...