Longitudinal changes in disabled husbands' and wives' receipt of care.
OBJECTIVE
This study contrasts 2-year adjustments in disabled husbands' and wives' amount of received care following both worsening and recovery in personal (activities of daily living [ADLs]) and routine care (instrumental activities of daily living [IADLs]) disability.


METHODS
Using longitudinal data on 789 husbands and 778 wives from the Health and Retirement Study (2000 and 2002), changes in marital partners' monthly hours of spousal and nonspousal care were jointly modeled using bivariate Tobit models. In addition, asymmetry in the magnitude of responses to worsening and improvement of function was examined.


RESULTS
Disabled husbands receive more hours of spousal and nonspousal care following worsening in ADL function than wives. Conversely, disabled wives lose more spousal and nonspousal care hours following improvements in ADL disability than husbands. Moreover, wives recovering in ADL function lose more hours of spousal care than they receive following worsening in personal care disability. There is no evidence of corresponding gender differences in the dynamics of assistance received following changes in IADL function.


CONCLUSIONS
Compared with husbands, disabled wives are disadvantaged in the adjustment of their personal care hours. Although disabled married community residents receive more hours of care than their unmarried counterparts, there are important gender differences in the advantages offered by marriage.
Noël-Miller
Claire
C
Center for the Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. cnoel@ssc.wisc.edu
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017028:Caregivers; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors
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