Recent Findings from Naples Highlight Research in Public Health (Voluntary private health insurance and management of frailty in European Health Systems: a longitudinal analysis): Health and Medicine – Public Health

2023 NOV 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators discuss new findings in public health. According to news reporting from Naples, Italy, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Frailty is a major health concern associated with aging.”

The news editors obtained a quote from the research from Department of Public Health: “It is a state of multisystem physiological decline and inability to maintain homeostasis, gradually leading to an increased risk of multiple adverse outcomes, such as falls, hospitalizations, and death. The prevalence of frailty in community-dwelling older Europeans (65 years and older) varies between 5.8% and 27.3%; in addition, between 34.6% and 50.9% are classified as ‘pre-frail’. In the face of the rapid population ageing occurring in Western societies, frailty is set to reach epidemic proportions over the next few decades. Although most European health care system offer essential treatment free of charge, voluntary private health insurances (VPHI) are becoming more common. Their coverage can be complementary or supplementary including access, faster treatment, waiting list avoidance, and out-of-pocket refund. A growing body of evidence is showing that there is erosion of the universal health coverage in European Health Systems and accessing VPHI might impact quality of care, especially for complex conditions i.e.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Frailty. Using European data from the 2013 to 2011 we will assess trends of VPHI in individuals 65 years and older and whether accessing VPHI impacts frailty management and quality of life for elderly Europeans who are frail. These findings will help assessing quality of frailty management in European Health Systems and identify possible inequalities in accessing health services.”

For more information on this research see: Voluntary private health insurance and management of frailty in European Health Systems: a longitudinal analysis. European Journal of Public Health, 2023,33(Supplement_2). The publisher for European Journal of Public Health is Oxford University Press (OUP).

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckad160.105.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting R Palladino, Department of Public Health, University “Federico II”, Naples, Italy.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)