AgeingTimeUse · Eldercare Policy Implications on the Time Use Patterns and Quality of Life of the Elderly and Elder Caregivers in Europe, UK, US, and Japan

Eldercare Policy Implications on the Time Use Patterns and Quality of Life of the Elderly and Elder Caregivers in Europe, UK, US, and Japan

The demographic trends show that in 2050, 25% of the population in Europe, 21% in the US, and almost 40% in Japan will be aged 65 and above. Countries will have to face tough decisions on public spending regarding the development of sustainable strategies for safe, healthy, and dignified ageing. Meanwhile, the increasing burden of family care responsibilities reinforces traditional gender roles within households, jeopardising the already fragile strides toward gender equality. The exacerbation of the demographic trends and increasing burden on public spending will push countries in the industrialised world to adjust the course as new challenges in family care will inevitably arise. Therefore, it is vitally important and timely at this juncture of history to study the daily lives of family caregivers. The main problem that drove this project was that there was very little comprehensive quantitative research on family caregivers. With this view in mind, the project focused on analysing the time use patterns of family caregivers, elucidating how family caregivers spend their typical days. It also identified the patterns of family caregivers and older adults (objective 1); mapped out demographic factors that affect the formation of these typologies (objective 2); and informed peers and broader audiences by developing a tool (atusxvisualizer.com) for making such analyses more accessible (objective 3). This research project analyses the time use in one of the most advanced countries in terms of social security for older people, Japan, and the US, where social security in older age is not comparable to that in Europe or East Asia. The project focused on the time use of caregivers. Using sequence analysis and a web application for data visualisation, the project defined the main typologies of time use among family caregivers across weekdays and weekends. These patterns then elucidate the effects of long-term care policy and formal care services, as well as the demographic and resource-based antecedents of why such patterns and typologies arise. The project also analyses the strain on paid and unpaid work among family caregivers. This project is an interdisciplinary study with outcomes spanning multiple disciplines, such as sociology, gerontology, demography, and computational science. It employed computational methods such as sequence analysis and sequence visualisations. The project uses large datasets such as the American Time Use Study, the Japanese Survey of Time Use and Leisure Activities, and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. A number of publications were produced under this project, with two highlighting the main outcomes of the project (in the Journal of Population Ageing and PLoS One).

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз