Who Will Care for Rural Older Adults? Measuring the Direct Care Workforce in Rural Areas.

J Appl Gerontol

Division of Health Policy & Management, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Published: August 2023

Using the 2021 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) dataset, we calculate the ratio of direct care workers relative to the population of older adults (ages 65+) across rural and urban areas in the US. We find that there are, on average, 32.9 home health aides per 1000 older adults (age 65+) in rural areas and 50.4 home health aides per 1000 older adults in urban areas. There are, on average, 20.9 nursing assistants per 1000 older adults in rural areas and 25.3 nursing assistants per 1000 older adults in urban areas. There is substantial regional variation. Greater investment needs to be made in improving wages and job quality for direct care workers to attract workers to these critical occupations, especially in rural areas where the need for direct care is greater.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10427731PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/07334648231158482DOI Listing

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