title: Evaluating the economic loss of caregiving for palliative care patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aim is to provide a unified measure of the economic burden faced by families during the palliative phase of care and to compare this measure to Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off.
  
  
  METHODS
  Samples of palliative care patients living at home and their main informal caregivers were recruited in five Canadian urban regions. Interviews were performed every two weeks until the patient's passing, up to a maximum of six months. Participants were asked to provide details about their expenses and their absences from work that related specifically to the patient's condition. Income loss was evaluated for 192 family units.
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 9 percent of families incurred economic losses in excess of 10 percent of their pre-study gross annual income; low-income status increased from 27 (before) to 40 (after).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to provide a unified measure of economic losses of caregiving that can be related to a publicly designated low-income threshold.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, and Institute of Health Economics, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dumont
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Turcotte
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002170:Canada; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000191:economics*; D011203:Poverty