Sources of vulnerability among those using homecare despite having no limitations in activities of daily living. An intersectionality analysis

Project Summary

Which life circumstances ‘get under the skin’ to be the strongest contributors to homecare use in older adults? This is important to consider because there are older adults who, despite having good mobility and being able to manage daily tasks still use homecare. What under lies this need? In our previous analysis of Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) data we showed that a small number of healthy older adults still use homecare. In this study, using the existing CLSA data, we want to further explore the risk profile of this subpopulation by evaluation of intersections of social factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, social networks, neighborhood deprivation, and traditional measures of health such as self-rated health and numbers of chronic conditions. Our findings will guide future social and public health policies by identifying vulnerable older adults in need of homecare but potentially overlooked in usual clinical assessments of need.