ArticleThe European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care2024
The Economic Costs of Informal Care: Estimates from a National Cross-Sectional Survey in The Netherlands.
Article in The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rehabilitation and care after hip fracture: a cost-utility analysis of stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial.Journal of rehabilitation medicine · 2024Trial
- Spillover Effects of Medical Innovations: A Universal and Scalable Approach to Measure the Societal Value of Avoided Informal Care Time.Applied health economics and health policy · 2026Article
- Cash-for-care and its impact on older adults' informal and formal long-term care use: evidence from continental European countries.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- Economic value of non-professional care in Spain. An analysis of the last decade.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- Health-oriented leadership and health equity: the role of NGO support in advancing public health policy and nutritional literacy.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Societal Economic Burden of Antibiotic Resistance in Uganda: A Cost of Illness Study.PharmacoEconomics - open · 2026Article
- Cost analysis of financial, productivity, and informal care burdens in families raising children with congenital anomalies.Health economics review · 2026Article
- Measuring and valuing spillover effects in caregivers and families: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- Unpaid care, time taken off work and healthcare costs before and after partner bereavement among same-gender and different-gender partners: A national population-based study.Palliative medicine · 2025Article
- Informal Caregivers in Transitional Hospital-to-Home Care for Older People: Addressing Gaps in Pre-Discharge Collaboration for Enhanced Patient Outcomes.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Article
- Supportive communication patterns among informal caregivers of older adults on Reddit: A content analysis.Digital healthArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Faced with an unprecedented demand for long-term care, European health care systems are moving towards mixed care models, where the welfare state and informal caregivers share care responsibilities. While informal care is often viewed as a means of alleviating pressure on public care, it comes with significant economic costs for caregivers, their employers, and society at large. This study uses nationally representative data to estimate the total direct (informal care time and out-of-pocket costs) and indirect (productivity) economic costs of informal care in the Netherlands in 2019. Informal care time costs are estimated using the opportunity cost and the proxy good methods. Indirect costs are estimated using the human capital and friction cost approaches. Our results reveal the considerable annual societal cost of informal care in the Netherlands, ranging between €17.5 billion and €30.1 billion, depending on the valuation approach. These costs are equivalent to 2.15% and 3.71% of Dutch GDP in 2019, comparable to the public expenditure on long-term care in that year. Female caregivers account for slightly more than half (53%-57%) of the total costs. Around 57%-88% of these costs are in the form of informal care time. The main driver of indirect costs is the temporary cessation of work, which comprises 12%-17% of the total costs. Findings corroborate that substantial resources, yet thus far largely disregarded, are spent on informal care even in a country with a relatively generous public long-term care system.
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