The population is rapidly ageing, which leads to increasing pressure on care: more people are getting older, while resources are scarce. The VU sociologists wanted to see whether older people, especially the less educated, will still be able to access the care they need: "They get their care primarily from the government. But as resources become scarcer, the question arises whether they will be able to get it in the future, or whether they will need care from their families," says lead researcher Jens Abbing.
Abbing and his colleagues investigated the extent to which people from different education levels make use of informal care, formal care from the municipality and/or private care. They also investigated to what extent this use has changed over the years. For this research, the sociologists used data from the LASA-study, a long-term research project in which older people are interviewed over an extended period of time. They looked at data from the past three decades, of people aged between 65 and 85 who lived independently at home.
The sociologists show that over the years, lower educated older people have consistently used both informal and formal care. In contrast, higher educated older people rely more on private care. Abbing says this can be explained by the fact that they prefer private care, partly to spare their families the caregiving burden. "Furthermore, with private care you can also decide how much care you'll get. If you get care from the government, how much care you receive is determined for you."
The researchers argue that the government should keep an eye on whether all elderly people have access to care. Although long-term care from the municipality is currently still accessible, this might change in the long term. According to Abbing, problems may also arise if lower educated elderly have to rely more on informal care due to less accessible formal care: "Families could become overburdened. This could reduce the quality of care and deteriorate the relationship with their relatives."
