Gonçalves Judite, Weaver France
Imperial College London School of Public Health, White City Campus, 90 Wood Lane, London W12 0BZ, UK.
NOVA University Lisbon NOVA School of Business and Economics, Campus de Carcavelos, Rua da Holanda, 12775-405 Carcavelos, Portugal.
Age Ageing. 2025 Feb 2;54(2). doi: 10.1093/ageing/afaf034.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the provision of informal care in major ways. This study documents the prevalences of informal support with (instrumental) activities of daily living (IADL and ADL) before, during and after the pandemic, distinguishing between children, other relatives and friends/neighbours and focusing on individuals 50 years and older across 27 European countries.
This longitudinal analysis relies on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)'s Wave 8 (2019), two Corona surveys (2020 and 2021) and Wave 9 (2022). Linear probability models adjusted for individual fixed effects and time-varying confounders were used to estimate prevalences of informal support over time.
During the pandemic, the prevalences of informal support with both IADL and ADL from all three groups of caregivers increased significantly (P < 0.01), to return to their pre-pandemic levels by 2022. For example, the adjusted likelihood of IADL help from children increased from 18.5% (2019) to 36.6% (2020) and 42.5% (2021), then dropped back to 19.7% in 2022. Friends and neighbours played a critical role, with the adjusted likelihood of IADL help going from 8.8% (2019) to 29.7% (2020), then down to 18% (2021) and 8.9% (2022).
Future emergency and disaster preparedness plans should contemplate the various sources of informal care, including support measures to non-relative caregivers, as those helpers may be able to rapidly respond to unexpected crisis.
背景/目的：新冠疫情在很大程度上扰乱了非正式照料的提供。本研究记录了疫情之前、期间和之后在日常生活（IADL和ADL）的（工具性）活动方面获得非正式支持的比例，区分了子女、其他亲属以及朋友/邻居，并聚焦于27个欧洲国家中50岁及以上的人群。
这项纵向分析依赖于欧洲健康、老龄化与退休调查（SHARE）的第8轮调查（2019年）、两轮新冠疫情调查（2020年和2021年）以及第9轮调查（2022年）。使用针对个体固定效应和随时间变化的混杂因素进行调整的线性概率模型来估计不同时间点非正式支持的比例。
在疫情期间，来自所有三组照料者的在IADL和ADL方面提供非正式支持的比例均显著增加（P<0.01），到2022年恢复到疫情前的水平。例如，子女提供IADL帮助的调整后可能性从2019年的18.5%增加到2020年的36.6%和2021年的42.5%，然后在2022年回落至19.7%。朋友和邻居发挥了关键作用，提供IADL帮助的调整后可能性从2019年的8.8%升至2020年的29.7%，然后降至2021年的18%和2022年的8.9%。
未来的应急和备灾计划应考虑到非正式照料的各种来源，包括针对非亲属照料者的支持措施，因为这些帮助者可能能够迅速应对意外危机。
