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Predictors of the Availability and Variety of Social Care Services for Older Adults: Comparison of Central European Countries

ABSTRACT. The aging of the European population represents a challenge for the current systems of social care services and in particular for the availability of individualized formal social care for older people. This article looks at 8 Central European countries and explores the contextual factors that boost or inhibit the development of these services, identifies the most important among them, and describes the specific contexts that are conducive to the development of social care services for older adults. Qualitative and quantitative data from Eurostat and the international project Housing and Home Care for the Elderly and Vulnerable People and Local Partnership Strategies in Central European Cities were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and multiple correspondence analysis. The results indicate that the availability and variety of social care services are above all linked to economic indicators, the age structure of the population, and un/employment rates. Moreover, the contextual factors tend to have a combined influence on the social care system. These findings imply that before restructuring the systems of social care services, local governments should take into consideration the simultaneous effect of multiple factors. However, the exploratory results of this study need to be verified in a larger number of diverse countries.