Safety of older people during the COVID-19 pandemic: coresidence of people aged 65+ in Poland compared to other European countries

Due to the fact that both the risk of severe symptoms from the disease and the risk of death as a result of complications after coronavirus infection significantly increases with the age of the infected person, the most vulnerable group is the elderly. In this report, we present an analysis of the housing situation of people aged 65+ in Poland compared to other European countries, with our results indicating that there is a large diversity in health risks for the elderly. This is due, on the one hand, to differences in the rate of cohabitation with younger people, and on the other, to differences in the frequency of using care institutions in later life. One of the basic challenges for both health and socio-economic policy design in the coming months will be to ensure safety and reduce coronavirus infection in the oldest population group. Decisions regarding the loosening of regulations that have imposed an obligation to maintain social distancing, in addition to considering incidence statistics, should also take these differences into account.

The Commentary Paper is available here.

The results presented in the paper are also available in Microsoft Excel.