Mid- and long-term consequences of COVID-19-related restrictions on healthcare use and health outcomes

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has lost much of its impact and disappeared from the minds of most people in Europe, concerns remain that the past two and a half years had enduring effects – especially on vulnerable groups that were heavily affected by the pandemic. For example, individuals requiring care often postponed (or were required to postpone due to epidemiological control measures) their medical treatments – without us knowing what the long-term consequences will be.

Against this background, we want to shed light on the mid- and long-term consequences of neglected healthcare on health(care) outcomes, comparing vulnerable older people at different levels of risk. Longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) will be employed to investigate this issue before, during, and after the pandemic. Our study will analyze changes in approximately 40,000 older Europeans (50 years and over) from 2017 to 2022, thus offering a cross-national perspective on healthcare usage and health outcomes in 27 European countries and Israel.

Initial findings indicate that medical treatments still have been forgone to a larger extent at the end of the COVID-19 crisis in 2022, relative to the period prior to the pandemic. Such observations demonstrate the continued influence of pandemic-related consequences upon healthcare users. Additionally, our preliminary analyses suggest that physical and mental health outcomes have deteriorated since the pandemic, albeit with regional variations across Europe. Our findings could have implications for individuals requiring healthcare and for European healthcare systems as a whole.