Professor Minjoon Lee’s recent research on nursing home aversion in Canadians has been garnering media attention recently. His paper “Nursing Home Aversion Post-Pandemic: Implications for Savings and Long-term Care Policy” is a joint work with Bertrand Achou, Philippe De Donder, Franca Glenzer, and Marie-Louise Leroux that was published last month in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. The research began attracting attention when the Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College, where Professor Lee is currently a visiting scholar, published a brief about the paper shortly after it was published.
Professor Lee and his collaborators have noted that older Canadian’s attitudes towards nursing homes have shifted significantly in the wake of COVID-19. Their research found that more than 70% of respondents aged 50-69 are less inclined to enter a nursing home now than they were before COVID-19 occurred. Such significant aversion to long-term care facilities is likely to have significant impacts on the future of long-term care, government policies that tend to prioritize institutional care over home care, and individuals’ saving patterns as they age. Due to similar experiences in nursing homes in the United States during the early days of COVID-19 it is likely these results will also translate to the American context.
The impact of Professor Lee’s research has attracted attention from various media outlets including Market Watch, Yahoo! Finance, and the Broadcast Retirement Network.
Congratulations Professor Lee on your impactful research!