Healthcare-associated infections in European long-term care facilities: how big is the challenge?

Europe is aging. The percentage of the population in the European Union (EU) aged 65 years and over increased from 9.6% in 1960 to 16.0% in 2010, and is projected to increase to 29.3% (152.6 million) in 2060 The population aged 80 years and over is projected to increase from 16.8 million (4.1%) in 2010 to 43.3 million (11.5%) in 2060, almost as many as the expected percentage of children (0-14 years, 15%) in 2060 At the same time, healthcare systems are striving for cost optimisation, which results, among other things, in shorter hospital stays and early discharge. These two factors combined have led to a rapid rise in the demand for nursing homes and other social and healthcare services for the elderly such as long-term care facilities (LTCFs), residential homes and home care. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that across OECD countries (these include 22 countries of the EU and European Economic Area (EEA)), about 12% of the population aged 65 years and older received some form of long-term care service in 2009 , either at home (64.5% of the services) or in institutions (35.5%) Based on these figures, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) estimates the number of residents in LTCFs in the EU at approximately 3.7 million in 2010, a number that will certainly increase in the coming decades.