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The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain

This article provides an updated picture of the enormous consequences that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–June 2020) had for older adults living in Spanish care homes. It aims to describe the regional variation in deaths among home care residents through a methodological triangulatio...

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Autores principales: Benet, Marta, Celi-Medina, Patricia, Fernández, Montserrat, Ezquerra, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9368388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35954969
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159617
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author Benet, Marta
Celi-Medina, Patricia
Fernández, Montserrat
Ezquerra, Sandra
author_facet Benet, Marta
Celi-Medina, Patricia
Fernández, Montserrat
Ezquerra, Sandra
author_sort Benet, Marta
collection PubMed
description This article provides an updated picture of the enormous consequences that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–June 2020) had for older adults living in Spanish care homes. It aims to describe the regional variation in deaths among home care residents through a methodological triangulation of descriptive quantitative, ecological and documentary analysis. Figures of five different indicators of care home mortality are provided and some factors related to higher mortality rates are presented and analysed in the descriptive ecological analysis in order to depict trends and, in a linear regression, to determine their statistical significance. The clearest trend reflected by the data is that the higher the cumulative incidence and the number of care home beds in the surrounding area, the higher the COVID-19 care home mortality. We argue that the pandemic has brought to light the historical fragility and underdevelopment of the Spanish LTC sector, and that these factors have exacerbated the consequences of the pandemic. Finally, we conclude that publicly available and disaggregated data would allow a deeper and more accurate analysis of potentially explanatory factors such as the type of care home ownership and management, and that further qualitative research would shed more light on people’s experiences.
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spelling pubmed-93683882022-08-12 The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain Benet, Marta Celi-Medina, Patricia Fernández, Montserrat Ezquerra, Sandra Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This article provides an updated picture of the enormous consequences that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–June 2020) had for older adults living in Spanish care homes. It aims to describe the regional variation in deaths among home care residents through a methodological triangulation of descriptive quantitative, ecological and documentary analysis. Figures of five different indicators of care home mortality are provided and some factors related to higher mortality rates are presented and analysed in the descriptive ecological analysis in order to depict trends and, in a linear regression, to determine their statistical significance. The clearest trend reflected by the data is that the higher the cumulative incidence and the number of care home beds in the surrounding area, the higher the COVID-19 care home mortality. We argue that the pandemic has brought to light the historical fragility and underdevelopment of the Spanish LTC sector, and that these factors have exacerbated the consequences of the pandemic. Finally, we conclude that publicly available and disaggregated data would allow a deeper and more accurate analysis of potentially explanatory factors such as the type of care home ownership and management, and that further qualitative research would shed more light on people’s experiences. MDPI 2022-08-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9368388/ /pubmed/35954969 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159617 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Benet, Marta
Celi-Medina, Patricia
Fernández, Montserrat
Ezquerra, Sandra
The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain
title The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain
title_full The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain
title_fullStr The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain
title_full_unstemmed The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain
title_short The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain
title_sort covid-19 pandemic in care homes: an exploration of its impact across regions in spain
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9368388/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35954969
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159617
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