Home Health Care and Aging in Place

Over time, older households have become more likely to age in place and more likely to receive long-term care at home. One possible reason these trends might be related is that increased access to home health care has facilitated aging in place. Factors making home health care more accessible include an increased proportion of married seniors — which provides more opportunities for informal spousal caregiving — and increased public funding for formal home health care through Medicare and Medicaid. An alternative hypothesis is that other forces have encouraged aging in place, which has in turn increased the demand for home health care. Potential factors include high home price growth and aging alongside one's neighbors.