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

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Arnault

    (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Florence Jusot

    (IRDES - Institut de Recherche et Documentation en Economie de la Santé - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Thomas Renaud

    (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

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, 2021. "Economic vulnerability and unmet healthcare needs among the population aged 50 + years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe," Post-Print hal-04222854, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04222854
    DOI: 10.1007/s10433-021-00645-3
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    Cited by:

    1. Celidoni, Martina & Costa-Font, Joan & Salmasi, Luca, 2022. "Too Healthy to Fall Sick? Longevity Expectations and Protective Health Behaviours during the First Wave of COVID-19," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 733-745.
    2. Šime Smolić & Petra Međimurec & Ivan Čipin & Stipica Mudražija & Dario Mustač & Margareta Fabijančić, 2025. "The hidden crisis: classifying unmet healthcare needs in European older adults during COVID-19," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-17, December.
    3. Arnault, Louis & Jusot, Florence & Renaud, Thomas, 2024. "Did the COVID-19 pandemic reshape equity in healthcare use in Europe?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    4. Bergeot, Julien & Jusot, Florence, 2024. "How did unmet care needs during the pandemic affect health outcomes of older European individuals?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Vaida Gineikytė Kanclerė & Luka Klimavičiūtė & Marco Schito, 2024. "The effects of restricted access to healthcare on vulnerable people: an analysis of the determinants of health outcomes among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 22(4), pages 937-958, December.
    7. Adelakun Odunyemi & Hamid Sohrabi & Khurshid Alam, 2024. "The evolution of household forgone essential care and its determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria: A longitudinal analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(4), pages 1-24, April.
    8. 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.
    9. Moran, Valerie & Nolte, Ellen & Suhrcke, Marc & Ruiz-Castell, Maria, 2025. "Investigating the relationship between unmet need and utilisation of health care in European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    10. 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.

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