Elderly migrants in outpatient and inpatient care services in Baden-Württemberg/Germany

Given the expected underrepresentation of elderly migrant populations in healthcare utilization we examined their proportion in nursing homes and care services for the elderly. We expected that cultural aspects were rarely addressed in the services´ concepts.

A questionnaire was administered to all care providers; 66.3% of 2724 in- and outpatient services in Baden-Württemberg, Germany participated.

78% of the services provided healthcare to migrants, who accounted for 14.1% of the clientele. This proportion was higher in urban (e.g. Heilbronn: 16.1%) than in rural areas (e.g. Lake Constance: 7.7%) and was significantly (r = 0.545, p < .05) correlated with the proportion of migrants in the general population. 39.1% of the migrants came from Russia, Poland and Turkey. Migrants from Turkey preferred outpatients´ rather than inpatients´ services. While 87.4% of services employed migrants, only 20% of services provided measures to increase intercultural competency to their employees.

Migrants utilize inpatient and outpatient services regularly as their proportion was closely associated to that of the general population. Although their number will likely increase in the near future, the vast majority of nursing facilities did not provide specialized measures to better meet the demands of residents with a migration background.