Comparing Long-term Care Models from a Bottom-up Perspective: a framework and a case study

Long-term Care (LTC) provides assistance to the elderly who have difficulties in conducting daily activities due to deterioration in health. There has been a growing interest in comparing different LTC models to yield knowledge on how to deal with diverse LTC needs. This work aims to propose and formalize a modelling framework to enable the deployment of simulation approaches in comparing and evaluating LTC models from a bottom-up perspective. It can be used to investigate the key question that to what extent the varied LTC design may influence LTC system outcomes, in terms of equity and efficiency. As a proof-of-concept effort, an example of applying an agent-based modelling approach to compare LTC models is presented, demonstrating the use of this modelling framework. This framework would be among the first in supporting comparative LTC studies by simulation approaches from a bottom-up perspective. It is expected that LTC domain experts can use this modelling framework for comparing policy options of their interests and thus facilitating policy-making processes.