Is the grass greener on the other side? Comparing the health impact of providing informal care between the UK and the Netherlands

While various studies report the impact of providing informal care on the health of caregivers, it is less clear whether and to what extent this impact differs across countries. Using propensity score matching we match caregivers to similar non-caregiving individuals using four waves of the Dutch Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation and the UK Household Longitudinal Study.
We explore whether the health impact of providing informal care differs by country once similar caregivers, in terms of the intensity of provided care, are compared. In both countries we find negative mental health effects of providing informal care. While these effects slightly differ by country, the main differences arise between subgroups of caregivers. Irrespective of large differences in LTC systems, individuals that provide more than 20 hours of informal care per week experience the most severe negative mental health effects.