IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eujoag/v19y2022i4d10.1007_s10433-021-00645-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic vulnerability and unmet healthcare needs among the population aged 50 + years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Arnault

    (Université Paris-Dauphine, Université PSL)

  • Florence Jusot

    (Université Paris-Dauphine, Université PSL
    IRDES (Institut de Recherche et Documentation en Economie de la Santé))

  • Thomas Renaud

    (Université Paris-Dauphine, Université PSL)

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of economic vulnerability on unmet needs during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Europe among adults aged 50 years and older using data from the regular administration of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the specific telephone survey administered regarding COVID-19 (SHARE Corona Survey). It addressed three main research questions: Did people who were in difficult economic situations before the epidemic face more barriers to accessing healthcare than others? If so, to what extent can these discrepancies be attributed to initial differences in health status, use of care, income or education between vulnerable individuals and non-vulnerable individuals or to differential effects of the pandemic on these groups? Did the effect of economic vulnerability with regard to unmet needs during the pandemic differ across countries? Unmet healthcare needs are characterised by three types of behaviours likely to be induced by the pandemic: forgoing care for fear of contracting COVID-19, having pre-scheduled care postponed and being unable to obtain medical appointments or treatments when needed. Our results substantiate the existence of significant differences in accessing healthcare during the pandemic according to economic vulnerability and of cumulative effects of economic and medical vulnerabilities: the impact of economic vulnerability is notably stronger among those who were in poor health before the outbreak and thus the oldest individuals. The cross-country comparison highlighted heterogeneous effects of economic vulnerability on forgoing care and having care postponed among countries, which are not comparable to the initial cross-country differences in social inequalities in access to healthcare.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Arnault & Florence Jusot & Thomas Renaud, 2022. "Economic vulnerability and unmet healthcare needs among the population aged 50 + years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 811-825, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00645-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-021-00645-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-021-00645-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10433-021-00645-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marion Devaux, 2015. "Income-related inequalities and inequities in health care services utilisation in 18 selected OECD countries," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 16(1), pages 21-33, January.
    2. Pinka Chatterji & Yue Li, 2020. "Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Providers in the US," NBER Working Papers 27173, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Allin, Sara & Grignon, Michel & Le Grand, Julian, 2010. "Subjective unmet need and utilization of health care services in Canada: What are the equity implications?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 465-472, February.
    4. Ko, Hansoo, 2016. "Unmet healthcare needs and health status: Panel evidence from Korea," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(6), pages 646-653.
    5. Theo Goedhart & Victor Halberstadt & Arie Kapteyn & Bernard van Praag, 1977. "The Poverty Line: Concept and Measurement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(4), pages 503-520.
    6. Engy Ziedan & Kosali I. Simon & Coady Wing, 2020. "Effects of State COVID-19 Closure Policy on NON-COVID-19 Health Care Utilization," NBER Working Papers 27621, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2021. "Unmet health care need and income‐Related horizontal equity in use of health care during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1711-1716, July.
    8. Robert B. Barsky & F. Thomas Juster & Miles S. Kimball & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 537-579.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thorsten Kneip & Axel Börsch-Supan & Karen Andersen-Ranberg, 2022. "Social, health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from a European perspective," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 789-792, December.
    2. Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2021. "Unmet health care need and income‐Related horizontal equity in use of health care during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1711-1716, July.
    3. Sime Smolic & Nikola Blazevski & Margareta Fabijancic, 2024. "Perceived unmet healthcare needs among older Europeans in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: the telemedicine solution," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 48(2), pages 125-150.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre, Aurélie & Jusot, Florence, 2017. "The likely effects of employer-mandated complementary health insurance on health coverage in France," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 321-328.
    2. Yu shin Park & Soo Young Kim & Eun-Cheol Park & Sung-In Jang, 2022. "Screening for Diabetes Complications during the COVID-19 Outbreak in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Marta González-Touya & Alexandrina Stoyanova & Rosa M. Urbanos-Garrido, 2021. "COVID-19 and Unmet Healthcare Needs of Older People: Did Inequity Arise in Europe?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Veronika Kočiš Krůtilová & Lewe Bahnsen, 2021. "Cost-Induced Unmet Need for Health Care among Europe's Older Adults - The Role of Specific Diseases," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 210-222.
    5. Carnazza, Giovanni & Liberati, Paolo & Resce, Giuliano, 2023. "Income-related unmet needs in the European countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    6. Carlota Quintal & Luis Moura Ramos & Micaela Antunes & Óscar Lourenço, 2023. "Unmet healthcare needs among the population aged 50+ and their association with health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Md. Mizanur Rahman & Megumi Rosenberg & Gabriela Flores & Nadia Parsell & Shamima Akter & Md Ashraful Alam & Md. Mahfuzur Rahman & Tessa Edejer, 2022. "A systematic review and meta-analysis of unmet needs for healthcare and long-term care among older people," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Šime Smolić & Ivan Čipin & Petra Međimurec, 2022. "Access to healthcare for people aged 50+ in Europe during the COVID-19 outbreak," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 793-809, December.
    9. Julien Bergeot & Florence Jusot, 2024. "The impact of unmet health care needs on self-assessed health and functional limitations during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic," Post-Print hal-04564156, HAL.
    10. Chen, Zhuo & Li, Pengfei & Liao, Li & Liu, Lu & Wang, Zhengwei, 2024. "Assessing and addressing the coronavirus-induced economic crisis: Evidence from 1.5 billion sales invoices," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    11. Eric French & Elaine Kelly & Richard Cookson & Carol Propper & Miqdad Asaria & Rosalind Raine, 2016. "Socio‐Economic Inequalities in Health Care in England," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 371-403, September.
    12. Insoo Cho & Peter F. Orazem, 2021. "How endogenous risk preferences and sample selection affect analysis of firm survival," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1309-1332, April.
    13. Sergio Sousa, 2010. "Small-scale changes in wealth and attitudes toward risk," Discussion Papers 2010-11, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    14. Cardak, Buly A. & Martin, Vance L., 2023. "Household willingness to take financial risk: Stockmarket movements and life‐cycle effects," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    15. Sebnem Eroğlu, 2007. "Developing an Index of Deprivation Which Integrates Objective and Subjective Dimensions: Extending the Work of Townsend, Mack and Lansley, and Halleröd," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 80(3), pages 493-510, February.
    16. Chen, An & Hieber, Peter & Sureth, Caren, 2022. "Pay for tax certainty? Advance tax rulings for risky investment under multi-dimensional tax uncertainty," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 273, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    17. Meghisan-Toma Georgeta-Madalina & Toma Dorin, 2019. "Health Determinants and Unmet Needs for Health Care- towards e-Health Systems," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 1045-1057, May.
    18. Christopher Erceg & Christopher Gust & David López-Salido, 2007. "The Transmission of Domestic Shocks in Open Economies," NBER Chapters, in: International Dimensions of Monetary Policy, pages 89-148, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Goytom Abraha Kahsay & Daniel Osberghaus, 2018. "Storm Damage and Risk Preferences: Panel Evidence from Germany," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(1), pages 301-318, September.
    20. Ralph Stinebrickner & Todd R. Stinebrickner, 2014. "A Major in Science? Initial Beliefs and Final Outcomes for College Major and Dropout," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(1), pages 426-472.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-021-00645-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.