Social benefits for senior citizens

Contact info

Welfare and Health, Social Statistics
Siri Dencker
+45 21 45 34 92

Get documentation of statistics as pdf

Social benefits for senior citizens 2023

The purpose of these statistics is to display the quality level of municipal services in the elderly care. The statistics are a part of a cross-public cooperation, intended to ensure coherent documentation of important areas of municipal service, as well as to increase the comparability of the services provided in the different municipalities. The statistics are used to determine impact targets, frameworks and results requirements for key management initiatives and are comparable from 2008 onwards. Statistics Denmark is responsible for the composition and publication of the statistics.

Statistical presentation

The statistic is an annual survey including a number of national impact- and background indicators which document and describe the quality of the municipal effort at the elderly area. The indicators consist of referral and provided home care, home nursing, nursing homes, exercise services, rehabilitation, preventative home visits as well as readmissions . Primarily, the indicators are targeted at the elderly area, however home care, exercise services, home nursing as well as nursing homes also include data for citizens under 67 years.

Statistical processing

Before publishing data from the municipalities' EOJ system (electronic care journal), tables and figures are developed, which all municipalities are asked to approve. After the approval, Statistics Denmark detects for data errors as missing numbers, abnormal values and etc.

Relevance

The authorities and public institutions and the population use the indicators for analysis, research, debate, etc. The focus is to ensure more valid documentation at the elderly area. This is achieved by retrieving the information directly from the municipalities' care systems (EOJ), which is constantly updated as a part of the municipalities' case management.

Accuracy and reliability

The municipalities are sent control tables, which they are asked to approve. Only approved information is included in the statistics. In the event of a lack of approvals, previous years’ information are included in national totals and averages. For the publication in 2023, between 97 and 98 municipalities are included, depending on indicator. Lack of approval may be due to the municipality registration practices, which condition which data is reported and system or supplier change, where it may happen that the reported data is flawed. Difference in several areas of registration practices between municipalities can cause biases.

Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics are published as pre-advertised. The statistics are released approximately 6 months after the reference period has ended.

Comparability

For the various indicators, there may be minor data breaches. For home care, rehabilitation, housing offer, preventive home visits and training, the municipalities' EOJ systems must be tendered every 5 years. For some municipalities, it means that they change suppliers, which can create small data breach and, as previously described, influence the precision of the figures. There are currently 3 suppliers on the market. In the case of hospital use, no correction has been made for the severity of the illness, why comparability between municipalities must be interpreted cautiously.

From 1 October 2023, three new variables were added to the statistics on referred home care, which has led to a data breach. From 1 October 2023, it is mandatory for the municipalities to report food service as a separate service. Previously, food service had to be reported as the benefit "Practical help". In addition, two new supplier types have been added in the form of "Free choice certificate" and "Self-selected helper". During the implementation of these new reporting requirements, it is evident that a number of municipalities have not reported food service previously, which is why comparisons of 2023 with previous years must be made with reservations.

Accessibility and clarity

The statistics are published in News from Statistics Denmark under the topic 'Living conditions'. The figures are published in the StatBank Social benefits for senior citizens. See more on the topic page for the Social benefits for senior citizens.