Older People Living Alone: the impact of care on informal carers’ quality of life

Especially in long-term care systems, in which the familial care and support take precedence, there is the challenge of caring for those older people without relatives, who live alone in private housing.

The cooperative research project OPLA – “Older Persons Living Alone – Non-kin-Carers' Support”, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), commits itself to the older people in Austria living alone in need of care, who receive support from acquaintances or friends. The main focus is the analysis of the living situation and the care arrangements of these people.

In the course of 18 months, there will be a series of qualitative interviews with care-dependent older persons and their informal carers, taking place in the Austrian provinces of Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, and Styria.

The outcome of the project is to better understand the living situations and care arrangements of care-dependent people who live alone and to contribute information for targeted and effective support of this group of people.

Within the sub-project “OPLA-IC”, the Research Institute for the Economics of Aging at the WU will take stock of the issue through the analysis of existing literature on the quality-of-life effect of care on informal caregivers. The focus of the project is the contextual and methodological assessment of the scientific work that deals with both the quantitative as well as the qualitative aspects of the impact of care on informal carers’ quality of life. The results aim to support the interpretation of qualitative research outcomes.

OPLA-IC Duration: 1 March 2018 – 30 April 2022

OPLA Duration: 1 March 2018 – 30 April 2022

OPLA-IC Financing: Austrian Science Fund (FWF, project number P 30607-G29), the WU, and the Vienna Social Fund (FSW)

WU Team:
Dr. Birgit Trukeschitz – contact
Mag. Judith Kieninger

OPLA - Project Partners:
Gesundheit Österreich (project lead), University Vienna; Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien