For our analysis, we combined Wave 6 (November 2020) and Wave 7 (January 2021) of the COVID-19 survey. For individuals who participated in both waves, we only used Wave 7. wave of the pandemic hong kong rcs data were defined as respondents who answered yes to at least one of the following questions in November 2020 and/or January 2021:
Is there anyone living with you who is sick, disabled or elderly whom you look after or give special help to (for example, a sick, disabled or elderly relative, husband, wife or friend etc)?
Thinking about the last 4 weeks, did you provide help or support to family, friends or neighbours who do not live in the same house/flat as you?
To compare changes pre pandemic, we used Wave 10 of the Understanding Society main survey (2018/2020). Unpaid carers pre pandemic were defined as respondents who answered yes to at least one of the following questions during 2018/2019:
Do you provide regular service or help for any sick, disabled or elderly person not living with you?
Is there anyone living with you who is sick, disabled, or elderly, who you give special help to?
There were some differences in the definition of unpaid caring before and during the second wave of the pandemic, which may influence the changes we observed. Even so, it is currently the best available approximation. The code for our analysis can be found on GitHub.