Covid-19: Does Housing Protect the Elderly in Latin America? Argentina and Colombia Compared with Spain

Abstract

Protecting the elderly population in the new Covid -19 paradigm cannot only be entrusted to confinement at home, especially in Latin America. The household structure, housing characteristics and employment activity of co-residents condition the exposure of elderly people to contagion at home. In order to measure the exposure, this number of Perspectives Demogràfiques suggests calculating an indicator that estimates multidimensional residential risk and allows comparison between populations. More than half of the elderly people of Colombia and 35% in Argentina are overexposed to Covid-19 at home. Demonstrating that the residential risk is very high in Latin America but also significant in Spain, this study shows that minimizing it must be a priority objective in protecting the elderly. This residential risk indicator for COVID-19 can be used to identify the more exposed areas or subpopulations within countries and guide future policy action with regard to pandemics.