The association between social risks and days at home for older veterans.

BACKGROUND: Many health systems are trying to support the ability of older adults to remain in their homes for as long as possible. Little is known about the relationship between patient-reported social risks and length of time spent at home. We assessed how social risks were associated with days at home for a cohort of older Veterans at high risk for hospitalization and mortality. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study using a 2018 survey of 3479 high-risk Veterans aged ≥65 linked to Veterans Health Administration data. Social risks included measures of social resources (i.e., no partner present, low social support), material resources (i.e., not employed, financial strain, medication insecurity, food insecurity, and transportation barriers), and personal resources (i.e., low medical literacy and less than high school education). We estimated how social risks were associated with days at home, defined as the number of days spent outside inpatient, long-term care, observation, or emergency department settings over a 12-month period, using a negative binomial regression model. RESULTS: Not having a partner, not being employed, experiencing transportation barriers, and low medical literacy were respectively associated with 2.57, 3.18, 3.39, and 6.14 fewer days at home (i.e., 27% more facility days, 95% confidence interval [CI] 8%-50%; 42% more facility days, 95% CI 7%-89%; 34% more facility days, 95% CI 7%-68%; and 63% more facility days, 95% CI 27%-109%). Experiencing food insecurity was associated with 2.62 more days at home (i.e., 24% fewer facility days, 95% CI 3%-59%). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that screening older Veterans at high risk of community exit for social risks (i.e., social support, material resources, and medical literacy) may help identify patients likely to benefit from home- and community-based health and social services that facilitate remaining in home settings. Future research should focus on understanding the mechanisms by which these associations occur.

The impact of informal caregiving on U.S. Veterans Health Administration utilization and expenditures.

Few studies have examined the effect of informal care receipt on health care utilization and expenditures while accounting for the potentially endogenous relationship between informal and formal care, and none have examined these relationships for U.S. Veterans. With rapidly increasing investments in caregiver supports over the past decade, including stipends for caregivers, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs to better understand the costs and benefits of informal care provision. Using a unique data linkage between the 1998-2010 Health and Retirement Study and VA administrative data (n = 2083 Veterans with 9511 person-wave observations), we applied instrumental variable techniques to understand the effect of care from an adult child on Veterans' two-year VA utilization and expenditures. We found that informal care decreased overall utilization by 53 percentage points (p < 0.001) and expenditures by $19,977 (p < 0.01). These reductions can be explained by informal care decreasing the probability of inpatient utilization by 17 percentage points (p < 0.001), outpatient utilization by 57 percentage points (p < 0.001), and institutional long-term care by 3 percentage points (p < 0.05). There were no changes in the probability of non-institutional long-term care use, though these expenditures decreased by $882 (p < 0.05). Expenditure decreases were greatest amongst medically complex patients. Our results indicate relative alignment between VA's stipend payments, which are based on replacement cost methods, and the monetary benefits derived through VA cost avoidances due to informal care. For health systems considering similar caregiver stipend payments, our findings suggest that the cost of these programs may be offset by informal care substituting for formal care, particularly for higher need patients.

Overcoming Access Barriers for Veterans: Cohort Study of the Distribution and Use of Veterans Affairs' Video-Enabled Tablets Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, as health care services shifted to video- and phone-based modalities for patient and provider safety, the Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Connected Care widely expanded its video-enabled tablet program to bridge digital divides for veterans with limited video care access. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to characterize veterans who received and used US Department of VA-issued video-enabled tablets before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We compared sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of veterans who received VA-issued tablets during 6-month prepandemic and pandemic periods (ie, from March 11, 2019, to September 10, 2019, and from March 11, 2020, to September 10, 2020). Then, we examined characteristics associated with video visit use for primary and mental health care within 6 months after tablet shipment, stratifying models by timing of tablet receipt. RESULTS: There was a nearly 6-fold increase in the number of veterans who received tablets in the pandemic versus prepandemic study periods (n=36,107 vs n=6784, respectively). Compared to the prepandemic period, tablet recipients during the pandemic were more likely to be older (mean age 64 vs 59 years), urban-dwelling (24,504/36,107, 67.9% vs 3766/6784, 55.5%), and have a history of housing instability (8633/36,107, 23.9% vs 1022/6784, 15.1%). Pandemic recipients were more likely to use video care (21,090/36,107, 58.4% vs 2995/6784, 44.2%) and did so more frequently (5.6 vs 2.3 average encounters) within 6 months of tablet receipt. In adjusted models, pandemic and prepandemic video care users were significantly more likely to be younger, stably housed, and have a mental health condition than nonusers. CONCLUSIONS: Although the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased distribution of VA-issued tablets to veterans with complex clinical and social needs, tablet recipients who were older or unstably housed remained less likely to have a video visit. The VA's tablet distribution program expanded access to video-enabled devices, but interventions are needed to bridge disparities in video visit use among device recipients.

Racial inequality in functional trajectories between Black and White U.S. veterans.

BACKGROUND: Racial inequality in functional trajectories has been well documented in the U.S. civilian population but has not been explored among Veterans. Our objectives were to: (1) assess how functional trajectories differed for Black and White Veterans aged ≥50 and (2) explore how socioeconomic, psychosocial, and health-related factors altered the relationship between race and function. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, longitudinal analysis using the 2006-2016 Health and Retirement Study. The study cohort included 3700 Veterans who self-identified as Black or White, responded to baseline psychosocial questionnaires, and were community-dwelling on first observation. We used stepwise and stratified linear mixed effects models of biannually assessed functional limitations. The outcome measure was as a count of functional limitations. Race was measured as respondent self-identification as Black or White. Demographic measures included gender and age. Socioeconomic resources included partnership status, education, income, and wealth. Psychosocial stressors included exposure to day-to-day and major discrimination, traumatic life events, stressful life events, and financial strain. Health measures included chronic and mental health diagnoses, smoking, rurality, and use of Veterans Affairs services. RESULTS: Black Veterans developed functional limitations at earlier ages and experienced faster functional decline than White Veterans between the ages of 50 and 70, with convergence occurring at age 85. Once we accounted for economic resources and psychosocial stressors in multivariable analyses, the association between race and the number of functional limitations was no longer statistically significant. Lower wealth, greater financial strain, and traumatic life events were significantly associated with functional decline. CONCLUSIONS: Health systems should consider how to track Veterans' function earlier in the life course to ensure that Black Veterans are able to get timely access to services that may slow premature functional decline. Providers may benefit from training about the role of economic resources and psychosocial stressors in physical health outcomes.

Improving Prediction of Long-Term Care Utilization Through Patient-Reported Measures: Cross-Sectional Analysis of High-Need U.S. Veterans Affairs Patients.

This article examines the relative merit of augmenting an electronic health record (EHR)-derived predictive model of institutional long-term care (LTC) use with patient-reported measures not commonly found in EHRs. We used survey and administrative data from 3,478 high-risk Veterans aged ≥65 in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, comparing a model based on a Veterans Health Administration (VA) geriatrics dashboard, a model with additional EHR-derived variables, and a model that added survey-based measures (i.e., activities of daily living [ADL] limitations, social support, and finances). Model performance was assessed via Akaike information criteria, C-statistics, sensitivity, and specificity. Age, a dementia diagnosis, Nosos risk score, social support, and ADL limitations were consistent predictors of institutional LTC use. Survey-based variables significantly improved model performance. Although demographic and clinical characteristics found in many EHRs are predictive of institutional LTC, patient-reported function and partnership status improve identification of patients who may benefit from home- and community-based services.

Heterogamy and contraceptive use among married and cohabiting women.

Decisions about which contraceptives to use are a key component of a couple's "fertility work," and these decisions can be made in homogamous or heterogamous couple contexts. Relative resource theory and the strain perspective suggest that heterogamy may lead to differences in bargaining power or higher levels of discordance within couples, thereby affecting the distribution of fertility work and decisions about which contraceptives a couple will use. While heterogamy has been linked to less effective contraceptive use amongst teenagers, its role in the contraceptive behavior of married and cohabiting women has been less widely studied. This study examines the association between relationship context in terms of education, age, and race/ethnicity heterogamy and partnered women's use of contraceptives. We used data on partnered women aged 20-45 who were trying to avoid pregnancy from the 2006-2015 National Survey of Family Growth (n = 8097). We used multinomial logistic regressions to determine whether education, age, or race/ethnicity heterogamy was associated with the use of male or female sterilization, long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), other hormonal contraceptives, or other non-hormonal methods. We did not find consistent evidence that relative bargaining power due to higher education, more advanced age, or racial/ethnic privilege resulted in the use of methods requiring lower levels of fertility work. We found some evidence supporting the strain perspective. Younger women (20-34) who differed from their partners along two or more dimensions were less likely to use contraceptive methods requiring ongoing effort and coordination (i.e., LARCs, other hormonal methods, and non-hormonal methods). This association was not observed among women aged 35-45. Despite the more permanent nature of marriage/cohabitation, differences between partners in heterogamous relationships may factor into the contraceptive decision-making process, especially among younger adults at earlier stages of their relationships.

Long-term care service mix in the Veterans Health Administration after home care expansion.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) efforts to expand access to home- and community-based services (HCBS) after the 2001 Millennium Act significantly changed Veterans' utilization of institutional, paid home, and unpaid home care relative to a non-VHA user Medicare population that was not exposed to HCBS expansion efforts. DATA SOURCES: We used linkages between the Health and Retirement Study and VHA administrative data from 1998 until 2012. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a retrospective-matched cohort study using coarsened exact matching to ensure balance on observable characteristics for VHA users (n = 943) and nonusers (n = 6106). We used a difference-in-differences approach with a person fixed-effects estimator. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Individuals were eligible for inclusion in the analysis if they were age 65 or older and indicated that they were covered by Medicare insurance in 1998. Individuals were excluded if they were covered by Medicaid insurance at baseline. Individuals were considered exposed to VHA HCBS expansion efforts if they were enrolled in the VHA and used VHA services. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Theory predicts that an increase in the public allocation of HCBS will decrease the utilization of its substitutes (e.g., institutional care and unpaid caregiving). We found that after the Millennium Act was passed, there were no observed differences between VHA users and nonusers in the probability of using institutional long-term care (0.7% points, 95% CI: -0.009, 0.022) or in receiving paid help with activities of daily living (0.06% points, 95% CI: -0.011, 0.0125). VHA users received more hours of unpaid care post-Millennium Act (1.48, 95% CI: -0.232, 3.187), though this effect was not significant once we introduced controls for mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that mandating access to HCBS services does not necessarily imply that access to these services will follow suit.

Estimating Costs of an Implementation Intervention.

Health care systems frequently have to decide whether to implement interventions designed to reduce gaps in the quality of care. A lack of information on the cost of these interventions is often cited as a barrier to implementation. In this article, we describe methods for estimating the cost of implementing a complex intervention. We review methods related to the direct measurement of labor, supplies and space, information technology, and research costs. We also discuss several issues that affect cost estimates in implementation studies, including factor prices, fidelity, efficiency and scale of production, distribution, and sunk costs. We examine case studies for stroke and depression, where evidence-based treatments exist and yet gaps in the quality of care remain. Understanding the costs for implementing strategies to reduce these gaps and measuring them consistently will better inform decision makers about an intervention's likely effect on their budget and the expected costs to implement new interventions.

Observational Study of the Downstream Consequences of Inappropriate MRI of the Lumbar Spine.

BACKGROUND: Contrary to guidelines, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is often ordered in the first 6 weeks of new episodes of uncomplicated non-specific low back pain. OBJECTIVE: To determine the downstream consequences of early imaging. DESIGN: Retrospective matched cohort study using data from electronic health records of primary care clinics of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. PARTICIPANTS: Patients seeking primary care for non-specific low back pain without a red flag condition or an encounter for low back pain in the prior 6 months (N = 405,965). EXPOSURE: MRI of the lumbar spine within 6 weeks of the initial primary care visit. MAIN MEASURES: Covariates included patient demographics, health history in the prior year, and baseline pain. Outcomes were lumbar surgery, prescription opioid use, acute health care costs, and last pain score recorded within 1 year of the index visit. KEY RESULTS: Early MRI was associated with more back surgery (1.48% vs. 0.12% in episodes without early MRI), greater use of prescription opioids (35.1% vs. 28.6%), a higher final pain score (3.99 vs. 3.87), and greater acute care costs ($8082 vs. $5560), p < 0.001 for all comparisons. LIMITATIONS: Reliance on data gathered in normal clinical care and the potential for residual confounding despite the use of coarsened exact matching weights to adjust for baseline differences. CONCLUSIONS: The association between early imaging and increased utilization was apparent even in a setting largely unaffected by incentives of fee-for-service care. Reduced imaging cost is only part of the motivation to improve adherence with guidelines for the use of MRI. Early scans are associated with excess surgery, higher costs for other care, and worse outcomes, including potential harms from prescription opioids.

Assessment of Primary Care Clinician Concordance With Guidelines for Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients With Nonspecific Low Back Pain in the Veterans Affairs Health System.

Importance: Magnetic responance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine that is not concordant with treatment guidelines for low back pain represents an unnecessary cost for US health plans and may be associated with adverse effects. Use of MRI in the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care clinics remains unknown. Objective: To assess the use of MRI scans during the first 6 weeks (early MRI scans) of episodes of nonspecific low back pain in VA primary care sites and to determine if historical concordance can identify clinicians and sites that are the least concordant with guidelines. Design, Setting, and Participants: Retrospective cohort study of electronic health records from 944 VA primary care sites from the 3 years ending in 2016. Data were analyzed between January 2017 and August 2019. Participants were patients with new episodes of nonspecific low back pain and the primary care clinicians responsible for their care. Exposures: MRI scans. Main Outcomes and Measures: The proportion of early MRI scans at VA primary care clinics was assessed. Clinician concordance with published guidelines over 2 years was used to select clinicians expected to have low concordance in a third year. Results: A total of 1 285 405 new episodes of nonspecific low back pain from 920 547 patients (mean [SD] age, 56.7 [15.8] years; 93.6% men) were attributed to 9098 clinicians (mean [SD] age, 52.1 [10.1] years; 55.7% women). An early MRI scan of the lumbar spine was performed in 31 132 of the episodes (2.42%; 95% CI, 2.40%-2.45%). Historical concordance was better than a random draw in selecting the 10% of clinicians who were subsequently the least concordant with published guidelines. For primary care clinicians, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.683 (95% CI, 0.658-0.701). For primary care sites, the area was under this curve was 0.8035 (95% CI, 0.754-0.855). The 10% of clinicians with the least historical concordance were responsible for just 19.2% of the early MRI scans performed in the follow-up year. Conclusions and Relevance: VA primary care clinics had low rates of use of early MRI scans. A history of low concordance with imaging guidelines was associated with subsequent low concordance but with limited potential to select clinicians most in need of interventions to implement guidelines.

Virtual Savings: Patient-Reported Time and Money Savings from a VA National Telehealth Tablet Initiative.

Virtual care holds promise for offering services to Veterans Affairs (VA) patients who have barriers to accessing care. In 2016, the VA began issuing video-enabled tablets to Veterans with geographic, clinical, and/or social barriers to in-person care. To complement a national evaluation of system-level implementation and effectiveness of these tablets, we sought to understand whether the VA-issued tablets generated money and/or time savings for patients. We distributed a survey to 2,120 Veterans who received tablets and administered a follow-up survey 3-6 months later. The final analysis included 594 and 399 patients who responded to questions about money and time savings, respectively. We used poststratification survey weighting methods to address potential selection and nonresponse bias. In multinomial logistic regressions and logistic regressions, we examined patient characteristics associated with reported money and time savings. A majority of survey respondents reported that the tablets saved them money (89%) and time (71%). Respondents were more likely to report monetary savings if they lived at a greater distance from the VA, if they experienced travel barriers, and if they did not have a mental health condition. Respondents were more likely to report time savings if they were <45 or ≥65 years of age, employed, and reported more overall technology experience. Findings may inform policy decisions regarding patient targeting and training as VA aims to expand its use of video telehealth technology.

Caregiving time costs and trade-offs: Gender differences in Sweden, the UK, and Canada.

Population ageing is putting pressure on pension systems and health care services, creating an imperative to extend working lives. At the same time, policy makers throughout Europe and North America are trying to expand the use of home care over institutional services. Thus, the number of people combining caregiving responsibilities with paid work is growing. We investigate the conflicts that arise from this by exploring the time costs of unpaid care and how caregiving time is traded off against time in paid work and leisure in three distinct policy contexts. We analyze how these tradeoffs differ for men and women (age 50-74), using time diary data from Sweden, the UK and Canada from 2000 to 2015. Results show that women provide more unpaid care in each country, but the impact of unpaid care on labor supply is similar for male and female caregivers. Caregivers in the UK and Canada, particularly those involved in intensive caregiving, reduce paid work in order to provide unpaid care. Caregivers in Sweden do not trade off time in paid work with time in caregiving, but they have less leisure time. Our findings support the idea that the more extensive social infrastructure for caring in Sweden may diminish the labor market effects of unpaid care, but highlight that throughout contexts, intensive caregivers make important labor and leisure tradeoffs. Respite care and financial support policies are important for caregivers who are decreasing labor and leisure time to provide unpaid care.

Increasing Mental Health Care Access, Continuity, and Efficiency for Veterans Through Telehealth With Video Tablets.

OBJECTIVE: In 2016, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) began distributing video-enabled tablets to veterans with access barriers. This study evaluated the implementation of this initiative for veterans with mental health conditions, including the impact of tablet receipt on access to and continuity of mental health care, missed opportunities for care, and use of urgent care. METHODS: A retrospective matched cohort study was conducted, matching tablet recipients with diagnoses of mental disorders (N=728) to a comparison group (N=1,020) on the basis of sociodemographic characteristics, mental health utilization and diagnoses, and wireless coverage. A difference-in-differences approach was used to compare 6-month pre-post changes in number of psychotherapy and medication management visits, continuity of psychotherapy based on VHA's quality metric for mental health care continuity, missed opportunity rate (i.e., the proportion of mental health appointments that were missed or canceled), and probability of any and number of emergency department (ED) or urgent care visits. RESULTS: Compared with the matched control group, tablet recipients experienced an increase of 1.94 (p<0.001) psychotherapy encounters, an increase of 1.05 (p<0.001) medication management visits, an 18.54 percentage point (p<0.001) increase in their likelihood of receiving recommended mental health care necessary for continuity of care, and a 20.24 percentage point (p<.001) decrease in their missed opportunity rate in the 6-month period following receipt of tablets (or the index date for the matched sample). No significant differences in ED or urgent care use were found. CONCLUSIONS: Distributing video-enabled tablets to veterans with mental health conditions appeared to improve access to and continuity of mental health services while also improving clinical efficiency by decreasing missed opportunities for care.

Economic Spillover Effects of Intensive Unpaid Caregiving.

BACKGROUND: Growing evidence has documented economic spillover effects experienced by intensive caregivers across the lifecycle. These spillover effects are rarely incorporated in economic analyses of health interventions. When these costs are captured, it is shown that commonly applied methods for valuing caregiver time may be underestimating the true opportunity costs of informal care. We explore how intensive caregiving is associated with economic outcomes for caregivers aged 18 years and older. METHODS: We used the cross-sectional 2013 RAND Survey of Military and Veteran Caregivers, a survey of 3876 caregivers and non-caregivers aged 18 years and older to conduct multivariable analyses and calculate average marginal effects, focusing on the association between intensive caregiving (i.e., providing ≥ 20 h of weekly care) and six economic outcomes: schooling, labor force participation, taking unpaid time off of work, cutting back work hours, quitting a job, and early retirement. RESULTS: Intensive caregivers are 13 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI] 8-18) less likely to be employed than non-caregivers. Intensive caregivers are 3 percentage points (95% CI 0.5-5) more likely to cut back schooling, 6 percentage points (95% CI 2-10) more likely to take unpaid time off of work, 4 percentage points (95% CI 0.1-9) more likely to cut back work hours, 12 percentage points (95% CI 8-15) more likely to quit a job, and 5 percentage points (95% CI 2-7) more likely to retire early due to caregiving responsibilities relative to non-intensive caregivers. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the difficulty of quantifying the true opportunity costs of informal care, policy makers and researchers need to understand these costs. The higher the opportunity costs of unpaid care provision, the less likely it is that caregivers will provide this care and the less economically attractive this 'free' source of care is from a societal perspective.

Making connections: nationwide implementation of video telehealth tablets to address access barriers in veterans.

BACKGROUND: Video telehealth technology has the potential to enhance access for patients with clinical, social, and geographic barriers to care. We evaluated the implementation of a US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) initiative to distribute tablets to high-need Veterans with access barriers. METHODS: In this mixed methods implementation study, we examined tablet adoption (ie, facility-level tablet distribution rates and patient-level tablet utilization rates) and reach (ie, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of tablet recipients) between 5/1/16 and 9/30/17. Concurrently, we surveyed 68 facility telehealth coordinators to determine the most common implementation barriers and facilitators, and then conducted interviews with telehealth coordinators and regional leadership to identify strategies that facilitated tablet distribution and use. RESULTS: 86 VA facilities spanning all 18 geographic regions, distributed tablets to 6 745 patients. Recipients had an average age of 56 years, 53% lived in rural areas, 75% had a diagnosed mental illness, and they had a mean (SD) of 5 (3) chronic conditions. Approximately 4 in 5 tablet recipients used the tablet during the evaluation period. In multivariate logistic regression, tablet recipients were more likely to use their tablets if they were older and had fewer chronic conditions. Implementation barriers included insufficient training, staffing shortages, and provider disinterest (described as barriers by 59%, 55%, and 33% of respondents, respectively). Site readiness assessments, local champions, licensure modifications, and use of mandates and incentives were identified as strategies that may influence widespread implementation of home-based video telehealth. CONCLUSION: VA's initiative to distribute video telehealth tablets to high-need patients appears to have successfully reached individuals with social and clinical access barriers. Implementation strategies that address staffing constraints and provider engagement may enhance the impact of such efforts.

Emergent Challenges in Determining Costs for Economic Evaluations.

This paper describes methods of determining costs for economic evaluations of healthcare and considers how cost determination is being affected by recent developments in healthcare. The literature was reviewed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the four principal methods of cost determination: micro-costing, activity-based costing, charge-based costing, and gross costing. A scoping review was conducted to identify key trends in healthcare delivery and to identify costing issues associated with these changes. Existing guidelines provide information on how to implement various costing methods. Bottom-up costing is needed when accuracy is paramount, but top-down approaches are often the only feasible approach. We describe six healthcare trends that have important implications for costing methodology: (1) reform in payment mechanisms; (2) care delivery in less restrictive settings; (3) the growth of telehealth interventions; (4) the proliferation of new technology; (5) patient privacy concerns; and (6) growing efforts to implement guidelines. Some costs are difficult to measure and have been overlooked. These include physician services for inpatients, facility costs for outpatient services, the cost of developing treatment innovations, patient and caregiver costs, and the indirect costs of organizational interventions. Standardized methods are needed to determine social welfare and productivity costs. In the future, cost determination will be facilitated by technological advances but hindered by the shift to capitated payment, to the provision of care in less restrictive settings, and by heightened concern for medical record privacy.

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Awareness and Its Association With Preventive Health Behaviors: Evidence From a Sample of Canadian Workplaces.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine Canadian workers' level of awareness about their cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and the association between CVD risk awareness and health behaviors. METHODS: We used cross-sectional data to compare awareness of CVD risk factors with biometric measures from a workplace screening clinic (n = 320). We assessed the association between risk factor awareness and self-reported health behaviors using logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Overall, 39.5% of workers did not know at least one of their CVD risk factors. These individuals were less likely to meet recommended physical activity levels and to consume three daily servings of fruits and vegetables, and more likely to report weekly fast food consumption. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights a lack of awareness about cholesterol levels and demonstrates a negative association between low CVD awareness and preventive health behaviors.

Caregiving intensity and retirement status in Canada.

A number of OECD countries have implemented policies encouraging longer labour force participation in tandem with policies encouraging informal care provision in the community. To better understand how these policies may affect the available pool of caregivers and labour force participants, we need more evidence about how informal caregiving is related to retirement status and timing. We assessed the association between caregiving intensity and retirement status for individuals aged 55 to 69 using the Canadian 2007 General Social Survey, a cross-sectional survey with 23,404 individuals. We used multinomial logistic regressions to determine whether providing different intensities of informal care (i.e. hours of weekly care) was significantly associated with the likelihood that an individual was fully retired, had retired and returned to work, had never retired and was working part-time or full-time, or was a labour market non-participant. We found that higher intensity caregiving was associated with being fully retired (relative to working full-time) for men and women (relative risk ratios, 2.93 and 2.04, respectively). For women, high intensity caregiving was also associated with working part-time (1.84) and being a labour force non-participant (1.99). Male and female high intensity caregivers were more likely to be retired before age 65. Our results highlight the importance of measuring caregiving intensity and multiple paths to retirement, which are often overlooked in the caregiving and retirement literature. They also indicate that a policy context encouraging both later retirement and more informal care may not be reasonable without flexible work arrangement options.

The fiscal impact of informal caregiving to home care recipients in Canada: how the intensity of care influences costs and benefits to government.

The objective of this study was to estimate the annual costs and consequences of unpaid caregiving by Canadians from a government perspective. We estimated these costs both at the individual and population levels for caregivers aged 45 and older. We conducted a cost-benefit analysis where we considered the costs of unpaid caregiving to be potential losses in income tax revenues and changes in social assistance payments and the potential benefit of reduced paid care expenditures. Our costing methods were based on multivariate analyses using the 2007 General Social Survey, a cross-sectional survey of 23,404 individuals. We determined the differential probability of employment, wages, and hours worked by caregivers of varying intensity versus non-caregivers. We also used multivariate analysis to determine how receiving different intensities of unpaid care impacted both the probability of receiving paid care and the weekly hours of paid care received. At the lowest intensities of caregiving, there was a net benefit to government from caregiving, at both the individual and population levels. At the population level, the net benefit to government was estimated to be $4.4 billion for caregivers providing less than five hours of weekly care. At the highest intensity of caregiving, there was a net cost to government of $641 million. Our overall findings were robust to a number of changes applied in our sensitivity analysis. We found that the factor with the greatest impact on cost was the probability of labour force participation. As the biggest cost driver appears to be the higher likelihood of intense caregivers dropping out of the labour force, government policies that enable intense caregivers to balance caregiving with employment may help to mitigate these losses.