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

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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