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GOLTC

GLOBAL
OBSERVATORY
OF LONG-TERM
CARE

Part of the International Long-Term Care Policy Network (ILPN)

 

Jeroen Spijker

Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Jeroen Spijker

Jeroen Spijker holds a PhD in Spatial Sciences (specialization in Demography) from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Prior to joining UIC, he worked as a researcher at the Centre for Demographic Studies (CED) (2004–2006; 2010–2012; 2015–2025), the Vienna Institute of Demography (2014), the University of Edinburgh, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2007–2009).

He has published on a wide range of topics, including population ageing, epidemiological and health transitions, trends in comorbidities and causes of death, modeling and forecasting causes of death, the supply and demand for informal carers, and the effect of digitalisation on the health of older workers.

He has (co-)led multiple projects in these areas and is currently the principal investigator of the R&D project Economic and Mental Well-Being over the Life Course: The Role of Health Status and Family Relationships (WELLHEALTHFAM, PID2023-152779OB-I00), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Countries Spain; Spain (Catalonia);
Topics Attitudes and Expectations about Long-Term Care; Demand for Long-Term Care; Epidemiology and ageing trajectories; Gender and care; Unmet needs; Younger carers;
Methods Longitudinal data analysis; Scoping reviews; Time series analysis;
Role Research;
Interest Groups Long-Term Care in Spain; Technology and Long-Term Care;
Websitehttps://www.uic.es/en
ORC.ID0000-0002-3957-9553
GOOGLE SCHOLARhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qi25mCsAAAAJ&hl=en
X (Twitter)https://x.com/popageing
LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jeroenspijker/
Research interests

Alternative ways to measure (the burden of) population ageing, elderly care, digitalisation
Key publications

Calderón Jaramillo M, Rentería E, Spijker J (2025). From curing to caring: Exploring health and social care needs after the onset of chronic conditions among European older adults 50+. Innovation in Aging igaf085. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaf085
Spijker J, Renteria E, Almeida Calazans J, Trias-Llimós S, Doblhammer G (2025). Educational inequalities in dementia-related mortality using a multiple cause of death approach and their contribution to life expectancy differences in Spain. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-10079-x
Spijker J, van Damme M, Arpino B (2025). The impact of providing intensive care and practical help in mid-life on employment transitions in Europe. European Journal of Ageing 22, 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-025-00857-x
Van Damme M, Spijker J, Pavlopoulos D (2025). A care regime typology of elder, long-term care institutions. European Journal of Ageing 22, 20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-025-00854-0
Lozano M, Xue B, Lacey R, Spijker J, Di Gessa G, Renteria E, Van Damme M, McMunn A (2025). Setting the scene: Cross-sectional country comparisons of associations between young adult care and education, employment, and health outcomes in Europe. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 30(1):2467098. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2025.2467098.
Rentería E, Lozano M, Spijker J (2025). The consequences of caring on health during early adulthood in Spain. Journal of Youth Studies 28(3): 549-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2023.2280850
Spijker J, Rentería E (2023), Changes in multimorbidity patterns of chronic diseases among Spanish senior citizens between 2006 and 2017. International Journal of Public Health 68: 1606259. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2023.1606259
Spijker J (2023) Combining remaining life expectancy and time to death as a measure of old-age dependency related to health care needs. International Journal of Health Economics and Management 23, 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-022-09328-7
Spijker J, Devolder D, Zueras P (2022). The impact of demographic change in the balance between formal and informal old-age care in Spain. Results from a mixed microsimulation-agent-based model. Ageing & Society 42(3), 588-613. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X20001026.
Spijker J, Schneider A (2021). The myth of old age: Addressing the issue of dependency and contribution in old age using empirical examples from the UK. Sociological Research Online 26 (2): 343-359. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780420937737
Spijker J, Zueras P (2020). Old-age care provision in Spain in the interplay between a new system of long-term care and a lingering economic crisis. Journal of Population Ageing 13: 41-62 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12062-018-9232-8.
Riffe T., Chung P.H., Spijker J., and MacInnes J (2017). Time-to-death patterns in markers of age and dependency. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2016, (14): 229–254.
Ferdández-Carro C, Módenes JA, Spijker J (2015). Living conditions as predictor of elderly residential satisfaction. A cross-European view by poverty status. European Journal of Ageing 12 (3): 187-202.
Spijker J, MacInnes J (2013), Population ageing:the timebomb that isn’t? BMJ 347:f6598. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6598