Cross-national differences in wealth inequality in health services and caregiving used near the end of life.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Socioeconomic inequality in access to and use of health services and social care provided near the end of life, or end-of-life care (EOLC), is not well understood in many countries. We examined wealth inequality in EOLC-hospital, nursing home, and hospice use and receipt of formal and informal caregiving-in 22 countries in Europe, Asia (South Korea), and North America (United States, Mexico).

Methods

We used harmonized data from nationally representative studies of people aged 50 and older that collected information on healthcare utilisation and caregiving receipt in the time preceding death. We categorized countries according to their level of public long-term care (LTC) spending and examined EOLC prevalence across countries. We used logistic regression models to

SUBMITTER: Ailshire JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10030998 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature