↓ Skip to main content

Does household help prevent loneliness among the elderly? An evaluation of a policy reform in the Netherlands

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, September 2018
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
1 X user

Citations

dimensions_citation
8 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
70 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Does household help prevent loneliness among the elderly? An evaluation of a policy reform in the Netherlands
Published in
BMC Public Health, September 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12889-018-6004-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Jelena Arsenijevic, Wim Groot

Abstract

Household help is a community intervention in the Netherlands. Its primary goal is to provide professional help in doing domestic work. A secondary goal of the intervention is to alleviate loneliness. In 2007, a major health care reform and budget cut changed household help. After the reform alleviating loneliness is no longer an aim of the intervention. In this study we evaluate the effects of the policy change in household help on loneliness among older adults in the Netherlands. We use SHARE data collected during the period 2004-2013 to compare levels of loneliness among older adults in the Netherlands and those in 9 other European countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Italy, France, Sweden, Spain and Switzerland). We use a synthetic control method (SCM) based on aggregate data. To check the robustness of our results we also apply a difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator that allows us to estimate the effects of policy changes using individual level data. In 2004, the prevalence of loneliness ranged between 6.5% in the Netherlands and 15.4% in Italy. Loneliness increased with time for all observed countries. The increase between 2004 and 2013 was highest in France - 30.2%, Italy - 33. 4% and Belgium - 25.0%. The level of loneliness among older adults in the Netherlands increased after 2011. However, it is still lower than in other countries. There was no statistical significant difference in age between waves (67.36 ± 13.7 before 2011 to 68.55 ± 9.24 after 2011, p = 0.01). Based on the DiD estimator, there is no statistically significant difference in the incidence of loneliness between older adults in the Netherlands and those in the control countries. Our results do not suggest that the policy change and budget cut in 2007 on household help has had an effect on loneliness. In absolute numbers, the prevalence of loneliness has increased since 2011, however we find no evidence that this can be attributed to the policy change.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 70 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 70 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 17%
Student > Master 10 14%
Researcher 6 9%
Lecturer 3 4%
Student > Bachelor 2 3%
Other 5 7%
Unknown 32 46%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Social Sciences 12 17%
Nursing and Health Professions 8 11%
Psychology 5 7%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 2 3%
Computer Science 2 3%
Other 4 6%
Unknown 37 53%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 September 2018.
All research outputs
#20,533,292
of 23,103,436 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#14,073
of 15,065 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#293,647
of 337,287 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#233
of 250 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,103,436 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 15,065 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.0. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 337,287 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 250 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.