Abstract
To the Editor: In a recent MJA article, Dyer and colleagues1 stated, “Australia provides institutional long term care for almost 20% of the population aged ≥ 80 years, and 6% of those aged ≥ 65 years. This places Australia as the nation with the highest proportion of older people living in institutional care compared with 11 other nations”.
However, the Australian numbers quoted are not comparable to the other 31 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) database.2 The “almost 20% of the population aged ≥ 80” refers to all persons in residential aged care at some time over the course of a year, whereas other countries mainly report point-in-time data. Only two countries (Australia and Greece) submitted data relating to residents over an entire one-year period.
However, the Australian numbers quoted are not comparable to the other 31 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) database.2 The “almost 20% of the population aged ≥ 80” refers to all persons in residential aged care at some time over the course of a year, whereas other countries mainly report point-in-time data. Only two countries (Australia and Greece) submitted data relating to residents over an entire one-year period.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 45-45 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Journal | Medical Journal of Australia |
Volume | 215 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2021 |