Μακροχρόνια φροντίδα υγείας: διαγενεακή σύγκριση του προφίλ ατόμων 50+ στην Ελλάδα πριν και μετά την οικονομική κρίση

Abstract

Population aging has led to a growing need for Long – Term Care (LTC). Older people absorb most of the long – term care services because they need help with activities of daily living. Questions are being raised about whether existing LTC systems in Europe, and especially in Greece, are adequately responsive so far so that they can effectively address the emerging over - demand for this care in the near future. The aim of this thesis is to cross - examine the profile of people aged 50 + in Greece before and after the economic crisis in relation to various socio - economic, demographic, individual / broader factors and health factors for possible fluctuations in LTC. The present study contributes to the least explored area of comparing the profile of older individuals in terms of their self - esteem in times of economic recession. Achieving the above goal was attained by extracting data from the European SHARE 50 + database. The reason for choosing this age group is that older people are considered to be the main recipients of long - term care and are therefore more likely to seek that care in the future. Statistical processing was performed, applying the statistical package SPSS, data from the publication of the easySHARE v base. 7.0.0. The data used concern a sample of 3387 people for the year 2007 (wave 2) but also a sample of 3061 people for the year 2017 (wave 7) in the Greek population. The impact of the economic crisis on the net income of households, Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), the number of chronic diseases and the self - perceived of people's health was studied. In addition, the impact of demographic, socioeconomic, and health - related factors on people's self - esteem has been studied. The findings show that the net income of households decreased while the age and number of chronic diseases increased over the period 2007 - 2017. People's self - esteem has declined over the past decade. More specifically, women have less self -esteem than men regardless of time period. Age, the number of chronic diseases and the difficulties in ADLs have the same (negative) effect on self - esteem regardless of time. Difficulties in IADLs are estimated to reduce self - esteem only in the post - crisis period. Older people (mainly 65 +) are predicted to have high levels of comorbidity and face severe limitations in both ADLs and IADLs and consequently report worse health levels (mainly women). The aging of this population in turn means that an increasing number will be identified with the aforementioned profile. Therefore, the need and demand for LTC will be increased and consequently health policies must be implemented to protect the health of the target population.