**5. Conclusions**

Our paper suggests that differences in the organization of health and social care systems across welfare states have broad impacts. They influence the time spent in informal care, the amount of reliance on family support, gender roles, working status and levels of psychological burden among populations. Our findings may facilitate the understanding of dementia care system variation across countries, thus having an impact for both policy and care management. This knowledge is also valuable for professionals and students in educational training, preparing for careers in the health care and

social service area. Differences between Sweden and Italy are quite significant and rooted in diverse explanations. Balance between informal and formal care is essential for welfare states sustainability and similar resource utilization dynamics can provide crucial information regarding the informal–formal care mix [54]. In the future, further investigation could be made including analysis of the unmet needs. In this respect, further qualitative research could be necessary to explore the experiences of people during their debate on seeking support services or not in the dementia care pathway.

**Author Contributions:** D.R.G. and C.C. designed the study. C.L. and F.M. coordinated the data collection. C.C. and V.M.S. performed the statistical analyses in dialogue with all authors. D.R. and C.C. took responsibility for writing the paper and all authors interpreted data and critically revised the article. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This study is funded by FORTE—Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Grant No. 2014-4913), the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy; and the Regional Health Agency of Marche Region, Ancona, Italy.

**Acknowledgments:** Sincere thanks are extended to all the participants in the study and the nurses of the two studies collecting data. This study was conducted within the context of the Centre for Ageing and Supportive Environments (CASE) at Lund University, funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FORTE). Members of the TECH@HOME Research Group are: Kajsa Hiller, Annica Karlsson, Therese Hector, Josefina Nilsson, Jenny Bengtsson, Przemizlaw Sozanski, Moa Wibom, Sonia Larsson, Knut Mårtensson, Carina Anderberg, Ulla Berggren, Christa Ohlson, Marie Persson, Per Mårten Johansson, Anna Liwander, Caroline Dahlgren Bergström, Maria H. Nilsson. Members of the UP-TECH Research Group are: the UP-TECH multidisciplinary research group: Diletta Baldassarri, Luigina Bitti, Aurora Carosi, Maila Sabbatini, Elisabetta Paolasini, Tania Fiori, Cinzia Fronzi, Simona Giacchetta, Valeria Giacomini, Laura Giovagnoli, Giuli Lattanzi, Anna Maria Manca, Ida Marinelli, Valeria Pigini, Marina Pignotti, Maria Chiara Proietti, Antonia Quarticelli, Martina Rovedi, Letizia Tasso, Valentina Valeri, Andrea Antonioli, Mariella Barabucci, Mara Bassani, Paola Bollettini, M Cristina Bruttapasta, Carla Buccolini, Rosa Carangella, Franca Carboni, Daniela Ceccolini, Patrizia D'Incecco, Mariangela Di Felice, Lara Dini, Giordano Gioia, Giuseppe Di Prima, Giancarlo Giusepponi, Cesarina Lanciotti, Alessia Loffreda, Oriana Luciani, Laura Mariani, Francesco Mastrorilli, Roberto Moroni, Izabela Piatkowska, Roberta Rucoli, Giampaola Scoccia, Nives Teodori, Tiziana Tonelli, Rossano Angeloni, Rosa Anna Bratti, Giuseppe Bonafede, Severino Lorenzetti, Cristina Paci, Giovanna Picciotti, Donella Pezzola, Vincenzo Rea, Vittorio Scialè, Mario Signorino, Francesca Sorvillo, Pia Francesca Tomassini, Alessia Ciccola, Lorena Cionfrini. Daniela Alessandrini, Antonio De Santis, Brunetta Formica, Giuliano Tacchi, Silvia Tortorelli, Gemma Marchegiani, Giovanni Pozzari, Giovanni Santarelli, Dario Bartolucci, Giorgio Caraffa, Filippo Cavallo, Lucia Di Furia, Antonio Lacetera, Claudio M Maffei, Lamberto Manzoli, Demetrio Postacchini, Fabrizia Lattanzio, Andrea Corsonello, Laura Cassetta, Franco Bonfranceschi, Joseph M. Rimland, Antonio Cherubini, Roberta Bevilacqua, Anna Rita Bonfigli, Silvia Bustacchini, Marina Capasso, Patrizia Civerchia, Federica Demma, Mirko Di Rosa, Cinzia Giuli, Marzio Marcellini, Paolo Marinelli, Gabriella Melchiorre, Maria Elena Moraca, Andrea Principi, Cristina Rocchetti, Osvaldo Scarpino, Liana Spazzafumo, Daniela Vincitorio, Krystian Bartulewicz, Paolo Olivetti, and Lorena Rossi.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
