Objective: Informal care constitutes a large percentage of total care for patients with dementia. Providing care for a person with dementia is stressful and demanding. The contingent valuation method can be used to estimate the willingness-to-pay for a reduction of caregiver's burden. This study compares the willingness-to-pay stated by caregivers and by patients.
Design: We use the contingent valuation method to measure the cost of informal care.
Materials and Methods: In 128 face-to-face interviews, caregivers and their demented relatives stated separately their willingness-to-pay for three hypothetical treatments - cure of dementia, stabilization of dementia and reduction of caregiver's burden.
Results: For a complete curing of their relatives, caregivers are willing to sacrifice on average 29 percent of their wealth. The value to prevent future worsening amounts to 23 percent of wealth. The mean for the third treatment is 17 percent. There are interesting differences between the willingness-to-pay by caregivers and by patients.
Conclusion: A major result of the study is the applicability of the contingent valuation method for valuation of caregiver's burden.
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