Socio-demographic, socio-economic and health need differences between types of care use in community-dwelling older adults

Abstract

This article aims to identify relations between socio-demographic/socio-economic characteristics and the use of informal and formal care. All analyses were performed on data from the Belgian Ageing Studies, a survey among community-dwelling older people (60+) in Belgium. Latent class analyses were used to identify types of care use and bivariate analyses were used to assess differences within these types. Eight different types were identified. Results demonstrate that the use of formal care increases with age and is not related to socio-economic status. The conclusion highlights how the complexity of different types of care use might be a challenge for our ageing society.