Assessing unmet needs of older adults receiving home and community-based services: Conceptualization and measurement

The purpose of this study is to review the conceptualization and measurement issues related to unmet service needs of older adults receiving home and community-based services. We summarize and synthesize the recent literature on unmet service needs to examine (1) how this concept is conceptualized and measured and (2) how this concept could be used to advance the provision of home and community-based services. The findings suggest that measures of unmet needs varied in terms of their focus (e.g., function-specific or service-specific) and sources of information (e.g., care receivers, caregivers, or professions). The findings underscore the need to further refine the conceptualization and measurement of unmet service needs and to assure the proper use of existing measures by social service providers.