Informal care and well-being - PhD (1,0 fte)

at  Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

INTRODUCTION

Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) invites applications for a fully-funded, four-year PhD position at the Health Economics research group.

JOB DESCRIPTION

With population ageing, the demand for care and support is expected to rise. One of the means to meet this growing care need is increased reliance on informal caregivers, friends and family members who provide care to their loved ones. Informal care provision can, however, be highly straining for the care provider and is expected to become even more impactful in the years to come due to decreasing numbers of potential informal care providers.
This project will focus on the individual and societal consequences of informal care provision. Dependent on preferences of the PhD-candidate, the project aims to cover (some of) the following topics:
What is the value of informal care (in the Netherlands or Europe)?
We know that informal caregivers contribute a large part of the LTC-supply, but what is the value of this care for society? Using survey data, we can investigate the value of informal care provision.
What are the consequences of combining informal care provision with a paid job?
A large share of informal caregivers combines their care tasks with formal employment. This combination of tasks can be especially straining and lead to diminishing health and well-being but can also have labor market consequences. Especially these latter effects, for example in the form of increased absenteeism or presenteeism at work due to care responsibilities, are not frequently studied. Using existing and/or newly gathered survey-data, this project aims to study the consequences of informal care provision for individuals in formal employment. Additionally, we aim to investigate which individuals face the largest burden (e.g., individuals with young kids, employees in certain sectors etc.).
What are the most important drivers of informal care burden?
Previous research has shown that informal care provision becomes more (mentally) straining when more hours of care are provided. However, it is unclear whether this larger burden is driven by care hours, the type of care tasks performed or the specific care situation (e.g. type of disease, relation, cohabitation). It is also unclear to what extent informal caregiving can have a positive impact on caregivers, whether this is person, task or situation related, and whether such positive experiences can help persevering in the role of caregiver (or facilitate combining responsibilities). Using existing and/or newly gathered survey-data, we aim to provide better insight into targeting informal care support: Will the impact of informal care provision be less severe when fewer hours of care are provided, will this only help when certain care tasks are taken over, or is it impossible to limit the burden due to the nature of the disease of the care recipient?
As a PhD candidate your research will not only contribute to academic knowledge but will also be aimed at having practical and policy implications. You will be part of the Health Economics research group at the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management. Your supervisors are Prof. dr. Werner Brouwer, Prof. dr. Job van Exel and Dr. Judith Bom. As a PhD student affiliated with ESHPM’s HE department, your primary duty will be to conduct research. In total, up to 25% of your hours in a given academic year is reserved for teaching and personal development (attending courses and conferences).

JOB REQUIREMENTS

• You are expected to have a master’s degree in health sciences, economics, health economics, or another relevant master’s degree.
• The position requires quantitative skills. Therefore, you need to have experience with quantitative research using a standard statistical software package such as Stata or R.
• You have excellent communication and (academic) writing skills in English.

Please refer the Job description for details