The COVID-19 Pandemic in Care Homes: An Exploration of Its Impact across Regions in Spain

Abstract

This article provides an updated picture of the enormous consequences that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–June 2020) had for older adults living in Spanish care homes. It aims to describe the regional variation in deaths among home care residents through a methodological triangulation of descriptive quantitative, ecological and documentary analysis. Figures of five different indicators of care home mortality are provided and some factors related to higher mortality rates are presented and analysed in the descriptive ecological analysis in order to depict trends and, in a linear regression, to determine their statistical significance. The clearest trend reflected by the data is that the higher the cumulative incidence and the number of care home beds in the surrounding area, the higher the COVID-19 care home mortality. We argue that the pandemic has brought to light the historical fragility and underdevelopment of the Spanish LTC sector, and that these factors have exacerbated the consequences of the pandemic. Finally, we conclude that publicly available and disaggregated data would allow a deeper and more accurate analysis of potentially explanatory factors such as the type of care home ownership and management, and that further qualitative research would shed more light on people’s experiences.