Unmet Care Needs in Aging Populations
Summary
The global demographic shift towards an older population has intensified scrutiny on the mismatch between care requirements and available support. Unmet care needs encompass deficits in assistance with basic self-care activities, such as bathing, dressing and feeding, and in more complex tasks including medication management, mobility and social engagement. Drivers of these gaps include the declining availability of informal family carers, fragmented service delivery, financial barriers and regional disparities in service provision. Consequences extend beyond individual health outcomes—delayed recovery, loss of independence and elevated risk of hospitalisation—to societal pressures on health and social care systems. Emerging evidence highlights that unmet needs are unequally distributed across socioeconomic groups, genders and geographic regions, with profound implications for equitable policy development, workforce planning and integration of community and formal care networks.
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Unmet Care Needs in Aging Populations publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in unmet care needs in aging populations across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): Fundamental self-care tasks such as bathing, dressing and eating.
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs): Complex activities supporting independent living, including shopping, cooking and managing finances.
Long-Term Care (LTC): A broad range of medical and social services provided to individuals with chronic disability or frailty.
Unmet Care Need: A situation in which an individual requires assistance for health or daily activities but does not receive adequate support.
References
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of unmet needs for healthcare and long-term care among older people. Health Economics Review (2022).
- Cared and uncared populations: understanding unmet care needs of older adults (65+) across different social care systems in Europe. European Journal of Ageing (2023).
- Effective service coverage of long-term care among older persons in South Korea. Age and Ageing (2023).
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