Some 89 per cent of older people in Ireland and 81 per cent in Northern Ireland would prefer to live at home with outside support if needed rather than live in institutional care, a report has found.
However, it also noted that community based services were "not sufficiently developed" to provide for older people to stay at home on a longer term basis.
The report 'One Island-Two Systems' - A Comparison of Health and Social Services Need and Use by Older People in the Republic and Northern Ireland, was launched at a Dublin conference today, held by the National Council on Ageing and Older People (NCAOP) and the Institute of Public Health in Ireland.
One of the main findings of the report was that around 12 per cent of older people were the main carers for others.
Participants in Northern Ireland (17 per cent) were more likely than those in the Republic (8 per cent) to be caregivers with a higher proportion of carers being women in both regions.
One of the authors of the report, Professor Hannah McGee from the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "While we are inclined to think of older people as those needing care and who simply draw on the services and resources of the State, in fact they provide a high level of care to other people"
"This does not count their key roles in other areas such as care of grandchildren so in fact older people are also net contributors which is often not acknowledged," Professor McGee added.
The report also found that older people in Northern Ireland were seen more quickly in A&E by a doctor with 81 per cent being seen within an hour of arrival. In the Republic 46 per cent reported being seen by a doctor within the hour. The report did note, however, that hospitals in the Republic may have been seeing more complex cases as more of the their patients were later admitted to hospital.
Older people in Northern Ireland were also more likely to report problems with routine daily activities such as walking, shopping and personal care. About one in three in Northern Ireland had some difficulty and one in ten in the Republic. This was despite similar age profiles in the two groups.
More than 2,000 people aged 65 and above were interviewed throughout Ireland for the report.
