Housing characteristics of low and moderate income older adults with and without disabilities.
Safiyyah M Okoye, Laura J Samuel, Chanee D Fabius and 5 others
PMID 39933307WHAT IT FOUND
About 32% of low and moderate income older adults with disability had an adverse consequence from unmet care needs.
Subsidized housing, renting, apartment or mobile home, and interior disorder were associated with having such consequences.
Key findings
01Older adults with disability were more likely than those without disability to rent, live in subsidized housing, live in an apartment or mobile home, and report interior home disorder, exterior home disrepair, or street disorder.
02Approximately 32% (an estimated 4 million) of low and moderate income community-living older adults with disability experienced an adverse consequence due to an unmet self-care, household, or mobility need.
03Among older adults with disability, living in subsidized housing (OR 1.82), renting (OR 1.57), living in an apartment or mobile home (OR 1.31), and interior home disorder (OR 1.25) were associated with higher odds of one or more adverse consequences due to unmet care needs; adjusted results were similar.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The data are from 2015, more than 8 years before publication, and housing and financial challenges may have changed since then. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether housing characteristics caused unmet care needs or whether disability and disadvantage led to certain housing. Key measures relied on self-report, including housing tenure, subsidized housing, disability, and adverse consequences, although interviewers rated some home and street features. The subsidized housing question may have missed some programs, so the subsidized housing finding may partly reflect measurement error. The sample includes only community-living older adults with low or moderate incomes, so it does not address nursing home residents or higher-income older adults.
Declared interests
The article is listed as NIH extramural research support. Author disclosures are not stated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these housing markers as causes of unmet care needs. The study is cross-sectional, and the subsidized housing finding may reflect measurement error or confounding rather than harm.