Housing quality and suitability and older people’s use of formal and unpaid care

Good quality housing is an important part of supporting people with care needs and improving lives but not much is known about how care use (formal and/or unpaid) might be related to housing, especially non-specialized housing where most older people live. Our study aimed to explore this relationship. Methods comprised secondary analysis of quantitative data from a large representative sample, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2012/2013 to 2018/2019), and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 72 people aged 65 and older with care needs and/or their unpaid carers living in five localities in England. We found that poor quality or unsuitable housing affected care use indirectly through increasing or precipitating care needs thus necessitating care and support, and directly through being a barrier to receiving care; the latter sometimes resulting in unmet need for support. Our paper thus contributes to the understanding of the relationship between non-specialized housing and care use and of the wider factors shaping unmet need for care.