Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SHARE-DEV3 (Achieving world-class standards in all SHARE countries)

Teaser

Population ageing and its social and economic challenges to growth and prosperity are among the most pressing challenges of the 21st century in Europe, as repeatedly emphasized by the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. In order to address this...

Summary

Population ageing and its social and economic challenges to growth and prosperity are among the most pressing challenges of the 21st century in Europe, as repeatedly emphasized by the European Commission, the Council and the European Parliament. In order to address this challenge with scientific support, the European Council and the Parliament demanded an infrastructure of micro data that combines information on health with the economic and social living conditions of individuals as they age and as they are exposed to the societal changes precipitated by the population ageing process (European Commission 2000).

SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, has been created in response to these demands. SHARE has been a huge success measured by the number of users, the number of scientific publications and its public policy support. The data has world-class value as proven by the many users also outside of the EU, especially in the US. The key value of SHARE lies in its strict cross-national comparability which permits unbiased cross-national comparisons of the economic, health and social situation of European citizens aged 50 and over.

The central objective of the SHARE-DEV3 project is to improve European coverage, stability and cross-national comparability of SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, while a sustainable funding model will be negotiated with the member states, DG RTD and several policy-related DGs to fully implement SHARE ERIC in all SHARE countries.
Specifically, the SHARE-DEV3 project supports the international coordination of SHARE and includes two components:

o Central coordination in Germany: This is funded by Germany as it concerns the SHARE-ERIC. However, additional resources are needed to extend the crucial central coordination also for non-ERIC members.

o Central tasks outside Germany (such as software maintenance and IT support, questionnaire development, database management and related common tasks): This has been fully funded by FP7 until the end of 2014. After 2015, additional resources are needed to perform these tasks also for those countries which are in SHARE but have not yet accessed to SHARE-ERIC or made corresponding financial commitments.

SHARE requires a strong international coordination because a thorough understanding of the aging process requires a combination of a longitudinal perspective from the view point of many disciplines and many countries. This follows from the ample evidence that well-being over the life course emerges from a person’s biological make-up, behavior, country-specific lifestyle, environmental and occupational conditions, and a multitude of interactions between these factors across the entire life span.
This perspective implies a design that combines three essential features which make SHARE a truly unique and innovative infrastructure in the world, but also requires the strong coordination that is the focus of the SHARE-DEV3 project:

• First, SHARE is ex-ante harmonized across countries which allows comparing the effects of the different health and welfare systems in the European countries on individuals and families. There is no other research infrastructure in the world with such strict harmonization requirements. This is significant because it permits to compare the effects and efficacy of different national policies without being distorted by national differences in measurement.
• Second, SHARE is transdisciplinary and fills an important research vacuum, namely the numerous interactions between bio-medical and socio-economic factors. It supports empirical research for many disciplines, including demography, economics, epidemiology, gerontology, biology, medicine, psychology, public health, health policy and sociology.
• Third, SHARE is longitudinal, i.e., the same individuals are repeatedly being interviewed to understand their individual aging processes and their responses to ongoing social and political cha

Work performed

During the reporting period of SHARE-DEV3, the two project components (central coordination in Germany and central tasks outside Germany such as software maintenance and IT support, questionnaire development, database management and related common tasks) have included a combination of operating and innovation tasks such as:
• The questionnaire has been revised and updated, most importantly re-designing the life histories, then testing and programming the updated survey instrument.
• The questionnaire has been restructured to a core survey plus modularized add-ons which can be fielded when and where resources suffice.
• The technical architecture of the software has been enhanced to cope with and benefit from changes in technical needs and practices for surveys.
• Data collection of the core survey in 2016/2017 in SHARE countries which have not yet accessed to SHARE-ERIC has been supported, especially Spain and Portugal in the South and Croatia and Hungary in the East, as well as Greece where -- although it is already member of SHARE-ERIC -- funding SHARE is impossible due to the current economic and financial crisis.
Much of the funding for SHARE through this project in 2015 through 2017 has been concentrated to the instable portion of the SHARE operations, while all other core data collection and accompanying logistical coordination activities will be financed by the members of the SHARE-ERIC according to Article 9 of its Statutes

Final results

• The re-design of the life histories has ensured comparability with the life histories in Wave 3 of SHARE and the life-histories of ELSA in the UK. Thereby, researchers will have access to more than 80.000 individual life histories in all 28 EU member states with their varied life circumstances and social and health policies. These data form a huge laboratory for social, economic and epidemiological research unprecedented in science.
• Restructuring the questionnaire into a core survey plus modularized add-ons will make future waves of SHARE more cost-efficient and easier to govern. It also permits competitive modules upon user requests and the appropriate funding.
• The enhancement of the technical architecture of the software will accommodate changes in technical needs and practices for surveys, such as the usage of handheld devices.
• Data collection in the countries of the EU periphery will permit targeted analyses of the social, economic and health situation in these crisis-stricken countries.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.share-project.org/.