Les déterminants socio-démographiques de la prise en charge des personnes âgées en situation de perte d’autonomie
Witnie Compere, Bertrand Achou, Philippe De Donder, Raquel Fonseca, Franca Glenzer, Minjoon Lee and Marie-Louise Leroux
Working Paper #23
Retirement and Savings Institute – February 2026
This paper examines the main socio-economic and demographic determinants likely to influence individuals’ decisions to provide long-term care to their parents. To do so, we draw on original data from a survey conducted in 2023 among 2,300 people aged 45 to 58 living in Quebec and Ontario. We analyze three dimensions of anticipated caregiving decisions in turn—the choice of potential care recipient, the type of care, and the expected weekly intensity of care—in order to capture the complexity of the decision-making process that precedes engagement in informal care. We show that these determinants reflect distinct trade-offs. The choice of care arrangement is shaped primarily by organizational constraints, such as whether the caregiver works full time, and by the anticipated caregiving burden, as reflected in the expected life expectancy of the care recipient. The expected intensity of care, meanwhile, depends on gender norms, time constraints—particularly those related to full-time employment and retirement timing—the perceived health status of the relative, and the parent-child relationship. This heterogeneity highlights that the willingness to provide care is driven neither by a purely emotional logic nor by a strictly economic calculation.