Perceived needs and priorities of older persons in humanitarian crises: A scoping review of literature

TL;DR

This review highlights the care needs of older people during humanitarian crises, emphasizing their reported priorities and the challenges they face.

Contribution

The study maps and synthesizes qualitative research on older persons' needs in humanitarian crises, focusing on their self-reported priorities.

Findings

Older persons prioritize managing chronic conditions and functional impairments during crises.

Environmental and social barriers, such as limited access to information and financial problems, hinder their care.

There is a lack of reliable data on older persons' needs, leading to inadequate support during emergencies.

Abstract

Humanitarian emergencies, including wars, forced displacements, sudden onset disasters, and pandemics, disproportionately affect older persons. This scoping review aims to map and synthesise existing studies on the care needs of older persons in such contexts, emphasising needs directly reported by the older persons themselves. A literature search was conducted on PubMed and EMBASE, focusing on qualitative studies that reported care needs of older persons in the context of humanitarian crises. The initial search yielded 4,409 articles, which were reduced to a final list of 27 articles after screening titles and abstracts, as well as an in-depth evaluation of full texts. The needs and priorities retrieved from the articles were clustered, taking into account the preparedness, response, and recovery phases of humanitarian crises to which they referred. Overall, findings indicated a broad spectrum of priorities reported by older persons. In particular, it was highlighted that the management of chronic conditions and functional impairments drove care needs. Furthermore, environmental barriers (including limited access to tailored information and inadequate transportation) and social issues (e.g., the need for support from others, disconnection from family, community, and cultural ties, and financial problems) are significant hurdles for older adults during crises. Unfortunately, qualitative studies reporting the perspectives of older people in the context of humanitarian crises still present substantial limitations, for which further research is required. Gathering evidence on the needs of older persons in humanitarian crises is essential. The scarcity of reliable data often results in their needs being overlooked during emergencies, leading to inadequate support.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40520-025-03226-x.

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