The oldest in society are a growing group, both in number and proportion of the population. At the same time, the proportion of elderly people who receive home care has decreased, according to statistics.
Researcher Isabelle von Saenger has investigated how the elderly and their relatives are affected by the development and in her dissertation points to a clear trend: The oldest are increasingly receiving support from relatives and above all from their partner.
Despite our welfare system, which is supposed to be equivalent, informal care is growing. It is remarkable that so little is said about how much families actually do, says Isabelle von Saenger.
The dissertation also shows that it has become more common to hire help in private purchase, especially among women and the highly educated. In 2021, it was just as common to buy services privately as to have home care.
This is a clear indication that there are other options for those who have more resources. They do not need to turn to family members.
Life partner more important
The study is based on data from Sweold, which is repeated interview surveys with the elderly about their living conditions.
Between 1992 and 2021, the proportion of 77-year-olds and older who themselves expressed that they need help with tasks such as cleaning and grocery shopping and who receive this help from the municipality has almost halved, from 58 to 31 percent.
During the same period, the importance of the life partner as a support pillar has increased. In 2021, the life partner was the most common helper in everyday life -
It is true that couples live together higher up in age now than before, notes Isabelle von Saenger.
Adult children also have a helping role, especially with driving, paying bills, and shopping. In 2021, 20 percent of those in need of help received support from their children. It is mainly daughters with working-class jobs who step in.
Shortened working hours
Isabelle von Saenger sees a long-term development that risks affecting both the elderly and their relatives negatively.
- It is worrying if the family gets more and more responsibility for the elderly's well-being, because somewhere that time must be taken from. It can become an economic risk, if you have to reduce your working hours. Providing a lot of care is also associated with health risks. Often it is older women, perhaps with their own health problems, who become caregivers to their husbands, she says.
Other research also shows that older people in Sweden want to socialize with their family, not be cared for by them.
Anna Lena Wallström/TT
Facts: Sweold
TT
Sweold, the study on older people's living conditions, is a repeated national representative interview survey of people who are 77 years and older.
The study spans the years 1992-2021.
Most likely, the pandemic has affected the development in 2021, in such a way that the risk of infection reduced the willingness to seek home care or ask the children for help. The next data collection of Sweold, 2026, will provide a clearer picture of the effects of the pandemic.
Source: The dissertation Care and financial support in ageing families: The changing shape of inequality, by Isabelle von Saenger, Karolinska Institutet
