Experts criticise Australia's aged care failings over COVID-19

Cousins, Sophie

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)32206-6

Cited by 49 publications

(48 citation statements)

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“…Moreover, not all countries have seen improvements in the second wave. Australia witnessed a major increase, and this may be explained by non-remedied dysfunctions in its elder care ( 16 ). The Australian aged care system has long been criticized for understaffing, and using low-pay staff with poor skills who work across multiple facilities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second versus first wave of COVID-19 deaths: Shifts in age distribution and in nursing home fatalities

Ioannidis

Axfors

Contopoulos‐Ioannidis

2021

Environmental Research

110

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OBJECTIVE To examine whether the age distribution of COVID-19 deaths and the share of deaths in nursing homes changed in the second versus the first pandemic wave. ELIGIBLE DATA We considered all countries that had at least 4000 COVID-19 deaths occurring as of January 14, 2020, at least 200 COVID-19 deaths occurring in each of the two epidemic wave periods; and which had sufficiently detailed information available on the age distribution of these deaths. We also considered countries with data available on COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents for the two waves. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Change in the second wave versus the first wave in the proportion of COVID-19 deaths occurring in people <50 years (“young deaths”) among all COVID-19 deaths and among COVID-19 deaths in people <70 years old; and change in the proportion of COVID-19 deaths in nursing home residents among all COVID-19 deaths. RESULTS Data on age distribution were available for 14 eligible countries. Individuals <50 years old had small absolute difference in their share of the total COVID-19 deaths in the two waves across 13 high-income countries (absolute differences 0.0-0.4%). Their proportion was higher in Ukraine, but it decreased markedly in the second wave. The odds of young deaths was lower in the second versus the first wave (summary prevalence ratio 0.81, 95% CI 0.71-0.92) with large between-country heterogeneity. The odds of young deaths among deaths <70 years did not differ significantly across the two waves (summary prevalence ratio 0.96, 95% CI 0.86-1.06). Eligible data on nursing home COVID-19 deaths were available for 11 countries. The share of COVID-19 deaths that were accounted by nursing home residents decreased in the second wave significantly and substantially in 8 countries (prevalence ratio estimates: 0.36 to 0.78), remained the same in Denmark and Norway and markedly increased in Australia. CONCLUSIONS In the examined countries, age distribution of COVID-19 deaths has been fairly similar in the second versus the first wave, but the contribution of COVID-19 deaths in nursing home residents to total fatalities has decreased in most countries in the second wave.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second versus first wave of COVID-19 deaths: Shifts in age distribution and in nursing home fatalities

Ioannidis

Axfors

Contopoulos‐Ioannidis

2021

Environmental Research

110

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“…Across the globe, workers have continued to work in settings where patients were known to be infected, yet staff were often not provided with PPE 29 . At the time of writing, Australia had one of the highest rates worldwide for deaths from COVID‐19 in people living in residential aged‐care facilities (75%) 30 . The industry relies predominantly on female care workers, who are poorly paid (around $16/h) 31 and often without employment benefits (e.g., sick leave and annual leave).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant workers, essential work, and COVID‐19

Reid

Rhonda-Perez

Schenker

2020

American J Industrial Med

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Globally, migrant and immigrant workers have borne the brunt of the COVID‐19 pandemic as essential workers. They might be a Bulgarian worker at a meat processing plant in Germany, a Central American farmworker in the fields of California, or a Filipino worker at an aged‐care facility in Australia. What they have in common is they are all essential workers who have worked throughout the coronavirus pandemic and have been infected with coronavirus at work. COVID‐19 has highlighted the inequitable working conditions of these workers. In many instances, they are employed precariously, and so are ineligible for sick leave or social security, or COVID‐19 special payments. If these are essential workers, they should get at least the same health and safety benefits of all nonessential workers. Improving the working and living conditions of migrant workers can and should be a positive outcome of the coronavirus pandemic.

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“…This can in turn lead to higher COVID-19 infection [34], and ultimately passing the infection to the population more susceptible to COVID-19 related complications, since young people were shown to be more likely to transmit the virus than others [35]. In line with these ndings, some countries took stringent steps to limit young population from transmitting COVID-19 infection to older population [36][37][38][39] but recorded mixed success [39][40][41]. Rapid and proactive outreach programs targeted at young people in Australia and Canada might explain why the risk perception was similar between younger and older participants living in the diaspora in this study [42].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Title: Risk Perception related to COVID-19 among Sub-Sahara Africans: A Web-based Comparative Survey of local and diaspora residents

Abu

Oloruntoba

Osuagwu

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background Perceived risk towards the coronavirus pandemic is a key to improved compliance with public health measures to reduce the infection. This study investigated how Sub-Saharan Africans (SSA) living in their respective countries and those in the diaspora perceive their risk of COVID-19 outbreak and the factors associated. Methods A web-based cross-sectional survey on 1969 participants aged 18 years and above (55.1% male) was conducted between April 27th and May 17th 2020. The dependent variable was perception of risk for contracting COVID-19 scores. Independent variables included demographic characteristics; COVID-19 related knowledge and attitude scores. Univariate and multiple linear regression analyses identified the factors associated with risk perception towards COVID-19. Results Among SSA respondents, majority were living in SSA (n = 1855, 92.8%) and 143 (7.2%) in the diaspora. There was no significant difference in the mean risk perception scores between the two groups (p = 0.117), however, those aged 18–28 years had lower risk perception scores (p = 0.003) than the older respondents, while those who were employed (p = 0.040) and had higher level of education (p < 0.001) had significantly higher risk perception scores than other respondents. After adjusting for covariates, multivariable analyses revealed that SSA residents aged 39–48 years (adjusted coefficient, β = 0.06, 95% CI [0.01, 1.19]) and health care sector workers (β = 0.61, 95% CI [0.09, 1.14]) reported a higher perceived risk of COVID-19. Knowledge and attitude scores increased as perceived risk for COVID-19 increases for both SSAs in Africa (β = 1.19, 95% CI [1.05, 1.34] for knowledge; β = 0.63, 95% CI [0.58, 0.69] for attitude) and in Diaspora (β = 1.97, 95% CI [1.16, 2.41] for knowledge; β = 0.30, 95% CI [0.02, 0.58] for attitude). Conclusions There is a need to promote preventive measures with focus on increasing people’s knowledge about COVID-19 and encouraging positive attitude towards the mitigation measures. Such interventions should target older participants and non-healthcare workers.

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Experts criticise Australia's aged care failings over COVID-19

Abstract: For more on the aged care Royal Commission see https:// agedcare.royalcommission.gov. au/sites/default/files/2020-10/ aged-care-and-covid-19-aspecial-report.pdf

Cited by 49 publications

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Second versus first wave of COVID-19 deaths: Shifts in age distribution and in nursing home fatalities

Second versus first wave of COVID-19 deaths: Shifts in age distribution and in nursing home fatalities

Migrant workers, essential work, and COVID‐19

Title: Risk Perception related to COVID-19 among Sub-Sahara Africans: A Web-based Comparative Survey of local and diaspora residents

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