title: Gender differences in care home admission risk: partner's age explains the higher risk for women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  older women have a higher risk of care home admission than men, this difference remains even after accounting for variations in health. A likely reason for this is the difference in social support provided by spouses. Older men may provide less care for their wives than women do for their husbands.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  this study assessed two competing explanations for this. First, older men are less willing to undertake traditionally feminine caring roles; secondly, older men are less physically able to provide care.
  
  
  METHODS
  the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS), a representative (c28%) sample of the Northern Ireland population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  a total of 20,830 couples were followed over 6 years, with 415 care home admissions among NILS cohort members. Women had a higher admission risk after controlling for cohort members' age and health; however, there was no gender difference after adjusting for partner's age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  these results suggest that advanced age and physical frailty explain why men provide less care for their partners than women do; rather than being unwilling to undertake a caring role. The narrowing gap in life expectancy between men and women may have an effect on the future demand for formal care.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Care Research, Queen's University Belfast, 6 College Park, Belfast, UK. mark.mccann@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McCann
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: Dermot
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O'Reilly
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009660:Northern Ireland; D010343:Patient Admission; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors