Health and social home services among community-dwelling older people during COVID-19: Results from the cross-sectional LOST in Lombardia project

Background: Few studies have focused on changes in health and social services access due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to describe changes in the use of selected health and social home services due to the pandemic and to investigate potential associated factors, including socio-demographic characteristics, number of chronic diseases and mental health indicators, among older Italian individuals. Methods: We analysed data from the LOST in Lombardia cross-sectional study conducted in November 2020 on a large representative sample of 4400 individuals aged ⩾65 years. To identify potential factors associated with the increased use of three selected health and social home services, we estimated odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (CI) using multivariable logistic regression models. Results: Compared to the year before, 5.0% of older adults increased help from domestic workers (vs. 6.9% reducing) during the pandemic, 4.4% increased help from non-familiar caregivers (vs. 1.3% decreasing) and 4.7% increased medical home visits (vs. 1.0% decreasing). An increase in the use of these services was more frequent among participants with co-morbidities (p for trend <0.001), especially with diabetes (for caregivers: OR=12.2, 95% CI 6.0–24.8), and worse mental health (for caregivers and for those with a GAD-2 score ⩾3 vs. <3: OR=10.6, 95% CI 5.8–19.4). Conversely, people living in more crowded households less frequently increased health and social services use during the pandemic. Conclusions: Our results should inform targeted interventions for the identified vulnerable groups to close the gap in health and social inequities.