Qu’en est-il des besoins en santé des aînés au Québec ? Portrait détaillé du recours aux services de santé durant la dernière année de vie
People aged 65 and over will constitute a quarter of Quebec's population by 2031, and this is not without cause for concern. In their later years, this ageing population is likely to experience an increase in multiple health problems, requiring increasingly complex and costly care. Quebec's health and social services system will have to adjust its range of services to meet these changing needs. In a CIRANO study (Bosson-Rieutort et al., 2024), the authors show that one out of every six people aged 65 or over at the time of death dies as a result of physical and cognitive frailty, such as Alzheimer's disease. The individual cost of the services used by these people soars in the last months of their lives, mainly because of the costs associated with institutional care. Given the government's desire to promote home care and move away from a hospital-centric vision, this study represents an important contribution to the debate.