The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the supply of formal and informal home care to older adults in many countries across the world. This study aims to compare the initial picture of how the supply of formal and informal home care to older adults in European countries and Israel changed during the first pandemic year (from mid-2020 to mid-2021) and to examine the changes that these countries made in the provision of adequate care to older adults. Using data from the two COVID-19 waves of SHARE, we show that the provision of formal home care services improved in the investigated period, as in 2021 the share of those who reported difficulties in receiving formal home care dropped significantly compared to the previous year. By contrast, informal care provision patterns experienced a growing polarization, with some countries continuing in reporting a strong support from this source, and others moving towards a remarkable reduction in the help coming from informal networks. These findings can serve as a basis for the development of evidence-based recommendations that can inform future care policies at the national level and to implement more sustainable models for older adults living in the community.

COVID-19 大流行改变了世界许多国家向老年人提供正式和非正式家庭护理的方式。本研究旨在比较欧洲国家和以色列在大流行的第一个年（从 2020 年中期到 2021 年中期）向老年人提供的正式和非正式家庭护理的供应变化的初步情况，并研究这些国家的变化。为老年人提供充分的护理。利用两次 COVID-19 浪潮 SHARE 的数据，我们表明，在调查期间，正规家庭护理服务的提供有所改善，因为 2021 年，报告难以接受正规家庭护理的人数比例与上一年相比大幅下降。相比之下，非正式护理提供模式的两极分化日益严重，一些国家继续报告来自该来源的大力支持，而另一些国家则显着减少来自非正式网络的帮助。这些发现可以作为制定基于证据的建议的基础，这些建议可以为国家层面的未来护理政策提供信息，并为生活在社区的老年人实施更可持续的模式。