Department of Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Rome, Italy.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2011 Nov 18;11:316. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-11-316.
The challenges posed by the rapidly ageing population, and the increased preponderance of disabled people in this group, coupled with the rising level of public expenditure required to service the complex organization of long term care (LTC) delivery are causing increased pressure on LTC systems in Europe. A pan-European survey was carried out to evaluate whether patterns of LTC can be identified across Europe and what are the trends of the countries along them.
An ecological study was conducted on the 27 EU Member States plus Norway and Iceland, referring to the period 2003-2007. Several variables related to organizational features, elderly needs and expenditure were drawn from OECD Health Data and the Eurostat Statistics database and combined using Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA).
Two global Principal Components were taken into consideration given that their expressed total variance was greater than 60%. They were interpreted according to the higher (more than 0.5) positive or negative correlation coefficients between them and the original variables; thus patterns of LTC were identified. High alignment between old age related expenditure and elderly needs characterizes Nordic and Western European countries, the former also having a higher level of formal care than the latter. Mediterranean as well as Central and South Eastern European countries show lower alignment between old age related expenditure and elderly needs, coupled with a level of provision of formal care that is around or slightly above the average European level. In the dynamic comparison, linear, stable or unclear trends were shown for the studied countries.
The analysis carried out is an explorative and descriptive study, which is an attempt to reveal patterns and trends of LTC in Europe, allowing comparisons between countries. It also stimulates further researches with lower aggregated data useful to gain meaningful policy-making evidence.Please see related article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/9/124.
人口老龄化带来的挑战，以及这一人群中残疾人数的增加，加上为满足长期护理（LTC）服务这一复杂组织所需的公共支出水平的提高，都给欧洲的 LTC 系统带来了更大的压力。进行了一项泛欧调查，以评估欧洲各地是否可以确定 LTC 模式，以及这些模式的国家趋势是什么。
对 27 个欧盟成员国以及挪威和冰岛进行了生态研究，参考了 2003-2007 年期间的数据。从经合组织卫生数据和欧洲统计局统计数据库中提取了与组织特征、老年人需求和支出相关的几个变量，并使用多元因子分析（MFA）进行了组合。
考虑到表达的总方差大于 60%，考虑了两个全局主成分。根据它们与原始变量之间的正相关系数（大于 0.5）或负相关系数对它们进行了解释；从而确定了 LTC 模式。与老年相关的支出与老年人需求之间高度一致的特点是北欧和西欧国家，前者的正规护理水平也高于后者。地中海以及中东欧和东南欧国家在与老年相关的支出和老年人需求之间的一致性较低，正规护理的提供水平接近或略高于欧洲平均水平。在动态比较中，研究国家显示出线性、稳定或不明确的趋势。
所进行的分析是一项探索性和描述性研究，旨在揭示欧洲 LTC 的模式和趋势，允许各国之间进行比较。它还鼓励使用更具代表性的数据进行进一步研究，这些数据对于获得有意义的决策证据很有用。请参阅相关文章：http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/9/124。
