Do informal caregivers for elderly in the community use support measures? A qualitative study in five European countries.

Background: Informal caregivers are essential figures for maintaining frail elderly at home. Providing informal care can affect the informal caregivers' physical and psychological health and labour market participation capabilities. They need support to prevent caregiver burden.

Patient socioeconomic determinants of the choice of generic versus brand name drugs in the context of a reference price system: evidence from Belgian prescription data.

The generic reference price system (RPS) can impose a financial penalty for patients using a brand name drug instead of its generic alternative. Previous studies on the impact of the RPS have not considered the potentially differential effect of using generic alternatives for individuals with a different socioeconomic background. However, patients' characteristics might determine their overall knowledge of the existence of the system and thus of the financial burden to which they may be confronted.

Patient socioeconomic determinants for the choice of the cheapest molecule within a cluster: evidence from Belgian prescription data.

Reference pricing is a common cost-sharing mechanism, with the financial penalty for the use of costly drugs shifted from the third-party payer to the patient. Unintended distributional consequences might arise, if the weakest socioeconomic groups face a relatively higher financial burden. This study analyzed for a sample of Belgian individual prescription data for 4 clusters of commonly used drugs (proton pump inhibitors, statins and two groups of antihypertensives [drugs acting on renin-angiotensin system and dihydropyridine derivatives]) whether the probability to receive the least expensive molecule within a cluster was linked to the socioeconomic status of the patient.

Using matched areas to explore international differences in population health.

In this paper, we develop and test a method for examining the influence of national level contextual influences on population health. Acknowledging calls for the use of experimental study designs to explore contextual influences on health, we develop a study design in which sets of local areas from Britain and Belgium became akin to two 'treatment' groups; one exposed to British society and culture and the other exposed to Belgian society and culture. The areas are matched on the basis of showing very strong similarities in economic, demographic and historical characteristics.

Does country influence the health burden of informal care? An international comparison between Belgium and Great Britain.

The aim of this paper is to determine whether the association between the provision of informal care and the health status of caregivers is affected by the country of residence. We focus on two European countries, Belgium and Great Britain, and develop a methodology, which consists of matching a subset of areas from Britain with areas in Belgium that are demographically and socioeconomically similar. These pairs of areas are then used as fixed effects in logistic regressions of poor health.

Caring, employment and health among adults of working age: evidence from Britain and Belgium.

Background: For those of working age, results are inconclusive when exploring the health impact of providing care. Moreover, population data is lacking and the impact of welfare policies on the caregivers' health has not been yet analysed.

Methods: Associations between general health and care giving, adjusting for differences in employment and socio-economic position, were explored for working age adults using logistic regression models.

[Informal health care in Belgium].

Research on the provision of care is mostly based on household sample surveys, which cannot measure the prevalence of caregiving in the general population. In order to appraise the individuals' involvement in the provision of informal care, specific questions on the care provided were included in Belgium's 2001 Census. Using data from the census we aim at analyzing how the provision and the amount of informal care, varies with respect to the individual's socio-economic characteristics.