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Care-related Out-of-Pocket Spending and Caregiving Consequences: Results from a Canadian Population-based Study

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Abstract

This study focused on out-of-pocket expenditures resulting from providing unpaid care to family members, friends, and neighbours. The main objective was to examine whether care-related out-of-pocket spending has a significant independent effect on caregiving consequences after controlling for the effects of other potential contributing factors. Cross-sectional data from the 2007 General Social Survey were used. Descriptive analyses and multivariate regression modeling were conducted. We found that an estimated 42.3% of the Canadian caregivers reported experiencing at least one of the six caregiving consequences. Results also showed that out-of-pocket spending was significantly associated with increased odds of caregiving consequences for men and women. This finding highlights the urgent need for policies and programs to support family/friend caregivers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Human Resources and Skills Development Canada for financial support for this research. The authors also wish to acknowledge the technical assistance received from the Manitoba RDC, and in particular from Dr. Ian Clara. The contributions of research assistants Mary Anne Nurmi and Stephanie Crook to the review of literature and of Dr. Syeed Khan in the analysis of data are gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada or of the federal government.

Funding

The research presented in this paper was conducted as part of a larger study, funded by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (Grant number # 9755-09-0018).

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Correspondence to Shahin Shooshtari.

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Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The University of Manitoba Research Ethics Board approved this study. Statistics Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) also approved access to the GSS master data file at the Manitoba Research Data Centre (RDC) in Winnipeg (Canada).

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Shooshtari, S., Duncan, K.A., Roger, K. et al. Care-related Out-of-Pocket Spending and Caregiving Consequences: Results from a Canadian Population-based Study. J Fam Econ Iss 38, 405–420 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-016-9516-1

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