Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy / Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe ( SHARE) is a multidisciplinary and cross-national research infrastructure, data for lives of more than 45,000 people over 50 rises at regular intervals and examined how the people in the countries of the European Union age. The data relating to different areas such as social and family networks, health and socio - economic status. Thus, the project responds to a call by the European Commission ", in cooperation with other Member States, a European study on the aging process to set up ." Meanwhile, SHARE has become a major pillar of the European Research Area and was selected in 2008 to be integrated into the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures ( ESFRI).

• 3.1 Wave 1 (2004)
• 3.2 Wave 2 ( 2006-07)
• 3.3 Shaft 3 / Share Life ( 2008-09 )
• 3.4 wave 4 ( 2010-11 ) 3.4.1 Pilot projects in the German study 3.4.1.1 Additional biomarkers
• 3.4.1.2 Linking with data from the German Pension Insurance
• 3.4.1.3 Non-response project

About SHARE

The international survey project, founded in 2002 is centrally located at the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging ( MEA) by Prof. Axel Börsch -Supan, Ph.D. (Project manager ) coordinates. Some basic tasks in the project are also taken over by national teams in Italy and the Netherlands. Worldwide, more than 150 researchers from international working groups and multidisciplinary national teams to the development of SHARE. A scientific board, composed of eminent international researchers and a network of consultants helps in maintaining and improving the high scientific standards of the project. SHARE is tuned to his idols and sister studies, the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS ) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA ) and has the advantage Variations of public policy, culture and history of a number of European countries to. include His scientific strength is based on the plant as a longitudinal study, which captures the dynamic nature of the aging process. The multidisciplinary approach of this study provides a comprehensive picture of the aging process. Strict procedural guidelines and programs ensure a transnational harmonosierte execution in advance. The data collected include health variables (eg, health status, physical and cognitive functioning, health behavior, use of care), biomarkers (eg grip strength, body mass index ), psychological factors (eg, mental health, well- being, life satisfaction ), economic variables (eg current work activity, job characteristics, wealth and consumption, housing, education ) and social support (eg assistance within families, social networks, volunteer activities). The data are available free of charge to the entire research community.

General facts and results

Economic situation, income and wealth

The data collected by SHARE allow a detailed insight into the financial situation of households, the elderly European population. The study shows for example, that people's income is not sufficient in all European countries - in some countries is therefore old-age poverty is a serious problem. In the Eastern European countries of Poland and Czech Republic, in the Southern European countries Greece, Italy and Spain and in Israel, the income is considered to be the least adequate. In these countries report more than 50 percent of the households of trouble to get along with the income. In contrast, the income is considered sufficient, especially in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland; less than 20 percent of households there have problems to come with her ​​income to make ends meet. Also, employment and retirement patterns differ significantly between European countries. The proportion of people who work very much for a very low pay, is particularly high in Poland and Greece. Accordingly, there is the proportion of early retirees than average. In contrast to these countries, the quality of work in terms of the performance - reward balance in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and Switzerland is high. You have also the lowest percentage of older workers who seek early retirement.

Family

Inter Familial support is closely related to geographical accessibility and social contact. On the one hand, the SHARE data confirm the existence of persistent regional structures of the "weak" and "strong" family ties, but on the other hand, they also place a lot of similarities across open through Europe. In all countries - and in all age groups - 85 percent of all parents have at least one child living more than 25 miles away from them. In addition, the percentage of parents who less than once a week have contact with one of their children in Spain and Sweden equally low ( 7%). The results provide therefore no evidence of a decline in the cohesion in parent-child relationships

Health

The SHARE data show a strong correlation between education and health in the elderly population. This applies not only at the individual level ( better educated people are healthier than the less educated ), but also across countries in Europe. Comparisons of average education and average health levels in SHARE countries show that in particular the eastern and southern countries are simultaneously characterized by a low educational level and a lower level of health. In contrast, the populations in Northern Europe and Switzerland are both healthier and better educated than the average of European countries.

Various waves of data collection

So far, four survey waves were implemented to collect information about the 50-plus generation. The surveys are funded by grants from the European Commission (through the Research Framework Programmes 5.6 and 7), the U.S. National Institute on Aging and various national sources, in particular the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The current wave 4 was collected in the years 2010 and 2011, more waves followed every two years.

Wave 1 (2004)

The first data collection took place in 2004 as a representative survey of people over 50 in 11 European countries instead. They covered the economic, social and cultural spectrum of Europe from Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden ) through Central Europe ( Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland ) to the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy and Spain). Israel was added in late 2004 and was the first country in the Middle East, which introduced a systematic study of its aging population. The main questionnaire consisted of 20 modules on health, socio -economic status and social networks. All data were collected using computer-assisted personal interviews, which were supplemented by measurements and a self-administered paper questionnaire.

Wave 2 ( 2006-07)

The second wave of the survey was carried out from autumn 2006 to spring 2007. The Czech Republic and Poland - - Since 2006, two "new" EU member states and Ireland are represented in the project. In addition to the main questionnaire an " end of life " interview was conducted with relatives of dead SHARE respondent. SHARE Israel led by the second wave of the survey from 2009 to 2010.

Shaft 3 / Share Life ( 2008-09 )

Share Life is the third wave of the survey, in the autumn of 2008 to summer 2009 detailed retrospective life stories were recorded. Share Life combines individual development over the entire life of the respondents (micro level ) to the institutional development of the welfare states. Here, the effect of the intervention of a welfare state on the lives of individuals can be examined. Information on the influence of changes of institutional frameworks on individual decisions in the evaluation of measures and policy decisions in Europe are of particular interest. The share life questionnaire covers all major areas of life of those of partners and children about accommodation and professional career to detailed questions about health and medical care. With this versatility SHARELIFE forms a large interdisciplinary database for research in the fields of sociology, economics, research on aging and population science. The data of the Share Life - life stories can be with the first two SHARE waves, evaluate the current living conditions of elderly Europeans linked.

Wave 4 ( 2010-11 )

The fourth wave of data collection began in the fall of 2010 and for the first time also includes Estonia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovenia. In the other European countries, the national questionnaires were expanded and the main questionnaire added a new module to social networks. In the German study, three additional projects, the collection of innovative biomarkers introduced (eg dried blood drops), the linkage with data from the German pension insurance and so-called non-response experiments. The data from the fourth wave will be available to the public from November 2012.

Pilot projects in the German study

Additional biomarkers

Ever since the first SHARE wave are biomarkers of participants, such as grip strength or walking speed, levied. In a part of the German study on wave 4 beyond other biological data were measured. These included height, waist circumference and blood pressure. In addition, participants with a drop of blood was taken to raise cholesterol levels, long-term blood sugar and inflammatory markers. It is hoped that the additional biomarkers on the one hand an instrument to compare the health objective with the subjective self-perception. They should also help to clarify the links between health and social status and to identify disease processes. The additional biomarkers to be used in later studies in other countries.

Linkage with data from the German Pension Insurance

In a personal interview to administrative issues, there is always the risk that the data given are incomplete or incorrect. The ideal way to collect such data completely and accurately is to query them directly with an administrative body. Such a direct query was in the German SHARE LIFE study, as well as in the German SHARE shaft 4, is applied. The responses of the participants were compared on the personal social security number with the details of the German pension insurance. So could be directly compared via one and the same person personal and administrative data.

Non-response project

Fewer and fewer people in Germany and all over Europe participate in the last decades of personal interviews. Non-participation is a serious factor, as it can affect the reliability of studies. Finally, it is quite conceivable that there are certain groups of people who do not participate in surveys. In this case, many studies would no longer representative. Therefore, the non-response project examines one hand, if one can move people to participate through financial incentives or better trained interviewer. On the other hand, it should also be examined quantitatively how many people for whatever reason do not participate in a study.

Related Studies and Projects

The SHARE study is not the only study that is involved in aging research - there are a number of sister studies around the world, which also deal with topics such as aging, pension, retirement and population growth. In addition to the models of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS ) and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA ) follow-up studies have emerged in the world: The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing ( TILDA ), The Longitudinal Aging Study in India ( LASI ), The Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement ( JSTAR ) SHARE Israel, The Korean longitudinal Study of Aging ( Klosa ), The Chinese Health and Retirement Survey ( Charls ) and The Mexican Health and Aging Study ( MHAS ).

More details in the SHARE brochure (PDF, 6.1 MB)