Title: Longitudinal association between informal caregiving and hospitalization in adults in Europe
Team CRESS: EpiAgeing (Epidemiology of Ageing & Neurodegenerative diseases), Centre de Recherche en Épidémiologie et Statistiques (CRESS), UMR 1153, Inserm – Université Paris Cité
Activity location: Université Paris Cité, Inserm, UMR 1153, 10, avenue de Verdun, 75010 Paris
Team leader: Archana Singh-Manoux, Séverine Sabia
Supervision: Dr Louis JACOB
Topic: The worldwide population is aging, and the global proportion of adults aged 65 years and over has risen from 6.1% in 1990 to 8.8% in 2017 [1]. Given that a substantial proportion of older people display functional limitations, the number of individuals requiring formal or informal help in their daily lives will likely increase in the following decades. In this context, a better understanding of the health of informal caregivers is essential and should be a public health priority.
Informal caregiving can be defined as unpaid care provided to relatives and friends [2]. There is a growing body of scientific literature highlighting the deleterious effects of informal caregiving on physical and mental health. For example, a study of 314,526 adults from South Korea revealed being the spouse of someone with dementia was associated with increased odds for stroke (adjusted odds ratio=1.69, 95% confidence interval=1.35-2.10) [3]. However, there is no information on the potential association between informal caregiving and hospitalization. This lack of data is of concern, as hospitalizations lead to increased mortality rates in older adults [4] and are economic challenges for healthcare systems [5]. The informal caregiving-hospitalization relationship could be mediated by several factors, such as social isolation, decreased physical activity, and physical multimorbidity. In this context, research on this topic is urgently needed.
The present internship aims to investigate the effects of informal caregiving on hospitalization in adults living in Europe. The study will use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. This survey has been repeatedly conducted in 28 European countries and Israel over the past 20 years. Advanced knowledge in statistics and epidemiology, particularly in mixed effects models, is necessary to perform this research project. The analyses will be conducted using R or Stata. Besides, some skills in literature review and medical writing are of interest. One of the objectives of the internship is to produce a manuscript, which will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Contact: Louis JACOB, email : louis.jacob@aphp.fr
References:
- Cheng X, Yang Y, Schwebel DC, Liu Z, Li L, Cheng P, et al. Population ageing and mortality during 1990-2017: A global decomposition analysis. PLoS Med. 2020;17: e1003138. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003138
- Bom J, Bakx P, Schut F, van Doorslaer E. The Impact of Informal Caregiving for Older Adults on the Health of Various Types of Caregivers: A Systematic Review. The Gerontologist. 2019;59: e629–e642. doi:10.1093/geront/gny137
- Hong I, Han A, Reistetter TA, Simpson AN. The risk of stroke in spouses of people living with dementia in Korea. Int J Stroke Off J Int Stroke Soc. 2017;12: 851–857. doi:10.1177/1747493016677987
- Quinn KL, Stall NM, Yao Z, Stukel TA, Cram P, Detsky AS, et al. The risk of death within 5 years of first hospital admission in older adults. CMAJ Can Med Assoc J J Assoc Medicale Can. 2019;191: E1369–E1377. doi:10.1503/cmaj.190770
- He S, Bian Y. Older adults ’s hospitalizational costs and burden study in China–analysis from CHARLS data 2018. Front Public Health. 2024;12: 1418179. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1418179
