Commission funded project generates valuable data on Europe's elderly
Older people in the North of Europe are healthier and wealthier than their Southern European counterparts, but they still die younger. This is just one of the findings to emerge from the EU funded 'survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe' (SHARE) project. The survey gathered data on the quality of life of around 22,000 European citizens aged 50 and over in 11 countries, from Scandinavia to Central Europe and the Mediterranean. The primary objective of the project was to generate reliable data for researchers and policy makers working in the fields of public health, economics and social sciences. 'Europe is blessed with large cultural, historical and political differences - even within small distances,' explains Axel Börsch-Supan, the project's coordinator from the University of Mannheim in Germany. 'SHARE provides a reliable scientific infrastructure that permits researchers in public health, economics and the social sciences to use modern quantitative methods that compare countries and regions within Europe.' Professor Börsch-Supan continued: 'Doing so will help us understand how culture, history and public policy - particularly important in these times of social and economic reform - affects the lives of Europeans over the age of 50.' Funded with a grant of 2.9 million euro under the Quality of Life priority of the Fifth Framework Programme, the project received additional funding from the US National Institute on Ageing and several national agencies in Europe. The project's conclusions, the first of which were published in a book entitled 'Health, ageing and retirement in Europe', are being made freely available to all researchers. Other findings to emerge from SHARE include the identification of a strong correlation between education and physical and mental health. For example, in all 11 countries individuals with a low level of education are 70 per cent more likely to by physically inactive, and 50 per cent more likely to be obese. On employment, the project found that early retirement is much more prevalent in those countries where public provisions are more generous (typically southern countries and Austria and France). As a result, there is a large untapped labour capacity in these countries where many healthy individuals are not in the workforce. The project also found that living close to one's children - in the same household or building - remains an important mechanism of social solidarity that plays an important poverty alleviation role - not only in the South of Europe, but also in Germany. Finally, the partners warn that there is still much room for improvement in the quality of geriatric care, particularly in the field of geriatric assessment and screening tests. Welcoming the presentation of the SHARE conclusions in Brussels on 28 April, European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, said: 'SHARE clearly shows how results from EU funded research projects can help to make sound policy decisions. Social security systems and governments need to know how their populations will develop to adapt social and economic policies accordingly. 'In making the demographic data of their survey feely available to other researchers, the SHARE study provides a valuable contribution to the European research Area,' Mr Potocnik concluded.