Housing quality and suitability and older people’s use of formal and unpaid care: improving access to care

Housing quality and suitability and older people’s use of formal and unpaid care: improving access to care | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Housing quality and suitability and older people’s use of formal and unpaid care: improving access to care Nicola Brimblecombe, Javiera Cartagena-Farias, Bo Hu, Madeleine Stevens, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Good quality, suitable housing is an important part of preventing care needs, supporting people with care needs, and improving older people’s lives. However, many older people live in housing which is of poor quality and unsuitable for their needs; this is unequally distributed. While there is a developing literature on supported housing and long-term care, this is rather less on non-specialist housing, the type in which the vast majority of older people live. Informed by social determinants frameworks and the behavioural model of health service use, our mixed methods study sought to understand the relationship between housing condition and older people’s use of formal care or help from family and friends. Methods comprised secondary analysis of quantitative data from a large representative sample, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2012/2013 to 2018/2019), and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 72 people aged 65 and older with care needs and/or their unpaid carers living in five localities in England. We found that poor quality or unsuitable housing can affect use of formal and/or unpaid care in two ways – indirectly through increasing or precipitating care needs thus necessitating help from another person, and directly through being a barrier to receiving care. Poor housing acting as a barrier to care use can result in unmet need for support. Other Public Policy Social Policy Housing housing problems long-term/social care formal care unpaid care unmet need for care Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files Supplementarytable1.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4655385","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":382219000,"identity":"d13a329f-fa8c-40c7-9844-45361724e3b9","order_by":0,"name":"Nicola Brimblecombe","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABCElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJACZgYGCQYDdjD7AAM/O0ych5AWZqgWyWbitDAgtBgcJqDFnIH9AXPhHotoc2bmgx8+5tyRMz7M/vABQ40dg8GZA1i1WDbwGDDPeCaRu7OZLVly5rZnxmaHeYwNGI4lMxicbcCqxeAADwMzzwGJ3A2HecyYebcdTtx2mIdNgoEN6MLz2B1mcADoMIgW/m8gLfWbm9mf/2D4h08L0ONQW9hAWhKA4WDGwNh2ALfDDvMYHJ5xAOwXY5BfDGcA/SKR2JfMI4nD+wbH2x8+LjhQl7udvfnhh4/b7sjzt7c//PDhm50c35kE7C5jBsUFBkjAG5GjYBSMglEwCggBADPEW3VaPWvnAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"London School of Economics and Political Science","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nicola","middleName":"","lastName":"Brimblecombe","suffix":""},{"id":382219001,"identity":"f8484ef0-f487-489a-a02a-7046d1f11e00","order_by":1,"name":"Javiera Cartagena-Farias","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"London School of Economics and Political Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Javiera","middleName":"","lastName":"Cartagena-Farias","suffix":""},{"id":382219002,"identity":"a25a92be-60cc-4fc8-ac0a-9207e11ee936","order_by":2,"name":"Bo Hu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"London School of Economics and Political Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Bo","middleName":"","lastName":"Hu","suffix":""},{"id":382219003,"identity":"6b5a7093-eb22-4754-8d2c-28fcdc33d661","order_by":3,"name":"Madeleine Stevens","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"London School of Economics and Political Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Madeleine","middleName":"","lastName":"Stevens","suffix":""},{"id":382219004,"identity":"ae34586c-16a9-4bb8-96e9-ff27cf448c94","order_by":4,"name":"Jayeeta Rajagopalan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"London School of Economics and Political Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jayeeta","middleName":"","lastName":"Rajagopalan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-06-28 14:22:44","currentVersionCode":2,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v2","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v2","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":75947182,"identity":"f9c91161-d243-49df-ae52-f44949f2720a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-02-10 21:06:35","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":452283,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Housingqualityandsuitabilityandcareuseanon.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4655385/v2_covered_09557e5b-4b4f-483d-9583-022cb21d5883.pdf"},{"id":75946227,"identity":"6fba879c-3871-4ed9-8a10-7a5d308b2fb7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-02-10 20:50:32","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":20355,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Supplementarytable1.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4655385/v2/fb9af515c3c4b5fe476410c1.docx"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHousing quality and suitability and older people’s use of formal and unpaid care: improving access to care\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Housing, housing problems, long-term/social care, formal care, unpaid care, unmet need for care","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v2","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v2","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eGood quality, suitable housing is an important part of preventing care needs, supporting people with care needs, and improving older people\u0026rsquo;s lives. However, many older people live in housing which is of poor quality and unsuitable for their needs; this is unequally distributed. While there is a developing literature on supported housing and long-term care, this is rather less on non-specialist housing, the type in which the vast majority of older people live. Informed by social determinants frameworks and the behavioural model of health service use, our mixed methods study sought to understand the relationship between housing condition and older people\u0026rsquo;s use of formal care or help from family and friends. Methods comprised secondary analysis of quantitative data from a large representative sample, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2012/2013 to 2018/2019), and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 72 people aged 65 and older with care needs and/or their unpaid carers living in five localities in England. We found that poor quality or unsuitable housing can affect use of formal and/or unpaid care in two ways \u0026ndash; indirectly through increasing or precipitating care needs thus necessitating help from another person, and directly through being a barrier to receiving care. Poor housing acting as a barrier to care use can result in unmet need for support.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Housing quality and suitability and older people’s use of formal and unpaid care: improving access to care","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":2,"date":"2025-02-10 20:50:28","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v2","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}},{"code":1,"date":"2024-11-25 09:14:01","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4655385/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"97b1490a-ecff-4e2a-add9-62a4996275bc","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 10th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":42637147,"name":"Other Public Policy"},{"id":42637148,"name":"Social Policy"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-11-25T09:14:01+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-02-10 20:50:28","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v2","identity":"rs-4655385","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4655385","identity":"rs-4655385","version":["v2"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}