CARE SHORTAGES IN LATER LIFE: THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL VARIABLES IN FLANDERS, BELGIUM

Year 2010, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 111 - 118, 01.06.2010

Nico De Witte Tine Buffel Liesbeth De Donder Sarah Dury Dominique Verté

https://izlik.org/JA45YG63EY

Abstract

Like many other European countries, Belgium has a strong policy of ‘ageing in place’. Older
people are invited to stay as long as possible in their own home/environment. This policy is
instigated by shortages in nursing homes and preferences of the older people themselves. Although
Belgium is considered to have an effective social security system, 6.4 % of the older people living
at home report care shortages.
In order to analyze these care shortages, we used - data from our own survey, the Belgian Ageing
Studies (BAS). In over 100 cities in Flanders, Belgium, a stratified sample was drawn from the
population data, using gender and age as stratification. A sample of 64280 residents aged sixty
and over was interviewed between January 2004 and December 2009. The results show that both
individual, socio-demographic and contextual variables like regional differences, living conditions
and housing are needed to explain care shortages among older people.

Keywords

care shortages , ageing in place , housing arrangements , older people , environmental gerontology

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