RN01 | Session 01a Active Ageing & Wellbeing
Women in transition: profiles and wellbeing practices in the age of menopause
Giulia Mascagni, Andrea Giannini
Dipartimento di Scienze Politche, Università di Pisa, Italy; Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Pisa, Italy
giuliamg.mascagni(at)gmail.com, andrea.giannini(at)unipi.it
Midlife is a phase of profound personal and social change for women: a number of life events involving a change of role and/or a redefinition of identity take place around that time. The paper presents some reflections based on a work in progress research devoted to focuses on a nodal passage of life biological but not least social: the menopausal transition. Through the analysis of the literature and original data, it studies and clearly identifies profiles and practices of mature adult women, considering the intervening influences between spheres of life, social configurations and health (perceived and objective).
The field research was conducted in two phases, each with specific tools: a survey to key informants; and focus groups typologically organized with women in menopause and perimenopause. Three are the issues in particular better highlighted:
I) The experience of the bodily changes related to aging, along with the awareness of the loss of fertility and the related effects on self-image.
II) The personal experience of menopausal symptoms (light or pervasive) and the potential interference with personal and social activities.
III) The strategies implemented to deal with change.
The analysis of this case studies provided a new and clearer insight into the condition and perception of menopause in relation to health and quality of life;
also, the multidisciplinary approach allowed to better define the framework of the main elements - tangible/intangible; individual/collective; environmental - which act as an incentive or as a barrier to redefine women’s self-image, roles and daily life.
Timing, duration and order: The influence of housing histories on later life wellbeing
Bram Vanhoutte, Morten Wahrendorf, James Nazroo University of Manchester, United Kingdom; University of Düsseldorf, Germany; University of Manchester, United Kingdom
bram.vanhoutte(at)manchester.ac.uk,
wahrendorf(at)uni-duesseldorf.de, James.Nazroo(at)manchester.ac.uk
The long arm of childhood, social mobility and the risk exposure that accumulative (dis)advantage entails, are three powerful, interrelated life course mechanisms that are often tested using relatively crude empirical measures. This contribution wants to highlight the possibilities of life history data in grasping the importance of timing, order and duration of housing over the life course. Housing is an important proxy for life course socio-economic position, as it is the most basic form of wealth accumulation in the UK.
This contribution makes use of the residential life history data, from birth up until the age of 50, collected in wave 3 of the English longitudinal study of ageing (ELSA), in a combination of sequence analysis, cluster analysis and regression techniques. A longer duration of renting and owning accommodation is related to respectively worse and better later life wellbeing. Moving more in childhood does not have implications for later life wellbeing, while frequent moving in young adulthood has positive effects on affective and eudemonic wellbeing. Moving more in midlife results in lower life satisfaction. Ten distinct housing careers emerge, illustrating the importance of accommodating heterogeneity in the population.
Downward housing trajectories stand out as detrimental to later life wellbeing, while growing up abroad as a child is beneficial.
Spanish elderly are reflecting on their active ageing. How their views differ from the scientific literature and policy making?
Vicente Rodriguez, Gloria Fernandez-Mayoralas, Fermina Rojo-Pérez, María Eugenia Prieto-Flores Spanish National Research Council, Spain; Spanish National Research Council, Spain; Spanish National Research Council, Spain; National University at Distance, Spain
vicente.rodriguez(at)cchs.csic.es, gloria.fernandezmayoralas(at)csic.es,
fermina.rojo(at)cchs.csic.es, meprietof(at)geo.uned.es
Introduction: The Spanish population is becoming older and this offers alternatives for the development of an active living in different social contexts. There are multiple efforts to make active ageing an operative concept under professional and non-professional perspectives (research, social agents, organizations, older-adults individuals).
Objective: This paper aims at analysing how older-adults in Spain build their active ageing, by studying the dimensions, factors, and consequences that derive from their way of living. A comparison with other active ageing perspectives, especially those coming from the literature and the documents that define public policies, is also intended.
Data and method: Seven focus groups, composed by 50 individuals older than 50, all of them participants in the Longitudinal Aging Study in Spain, Pilot Survey, ELES-PS, as well as 10 in-depth interviews with senior social organizations officers were collected to
approach the lay active ageing perspective. Literature and policy papers review of active ageing has been also deployed to make a contrast with the lay approach. All the data have been analysed with Atlas.ti.
Results: Older people in Spain do not clearly assume what active ageing is for them, but their discourse allows to identify some referential aspects about the conditioning factors of their behaviour leading to an active ageing retirement, offering outstanding ideas about their personal, cultural, social activities, their leisure time in general, their involvement in some social participation interests and the benefits they get.
Literature on active ageing and policy documents will allow comparisons between lay, scientific and policy perspectives.
Rethinking the concept of successful aging: a disability studies approach
Håkan Jönson, Tove Harnett, Annika Taghizadeh Larsson
Lund University, Sweden; Lund University, Sweden;
Linköping University, Sweden
hakan.jonson(at)soch.lu.se, tove.harnett(at)soch.lu.se, annika.t.larsson(at)liu.se
The theoretical concept of successful aging has been closely related to individual responsibility for maintaining health, high physical and cognitive functions. Critics have argued that successful aging models reinforce the marginalization and increase the stigma associated with diseases and impairments in older ages. The aim of this presentation is to redirect attention from the – much criticized – normative and individualized character of successful aging, and rework it into a new model inspired by disability policies, and in particular the emphasis on equal rights that is present in the Scandinavian normalization principle. The new model – which we refer to as the Scandinavian Model of Successful Aging – is based on comparisons of possibilities as means to argue for the right to live like “others”. According to the proposed model, success is a matter of how society enables or disables individuals as specified into two criteria: a) being enabled to have an active engagement with life, like others in the third age, and B) being enabled to maintain a high level of function, like others in the third age. The potential of the model is discussed using interviews and participant observations from three projects involving persons who have aged with severe disabilities and help in the form of personal assistance. Interviewees described how the flexible help in the form of personal assistance enabled them to maintain an active engagement in life and a high level of function through activities that have been described as typical for the third age: exercise, travel, studies, research, hobbies, participation in voluntary work and political activities.
RN01 | Session 01b Care Policies
Care gap and the Care Mix in Europe: Exploring Modes of Long Term Care across European Countries
Platon Tinios, Thomas Georgiadis, Zafiris Valvis University of Piraeus, Greece; Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences, Greece; University of Piraeus, Greece
ptinios(at)gmail.com, th.georgiadis(at)gmail.com, zvalvis(at)gmail.com
Ageing in Europe has increased the need for Long term care (LTC). LTC meets similar needs through strikingly different means in different contexts.This paper uses data obtained from the fifth wave (2013) of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) of people aged 50+ as a means to benchmark LTC in fifteen European countries from the North to the South. The focus is on two key indicators:
The Care Gap, that is, the extent to which the need for care is not met by any kind of provision, and the Care Mix, that is, how the overall provision is split into formal (professional - public and private), and informal care (unpaid care by family, friends or neighbours).
Basic findings for the 65+ population are supplemented by an analysis by large age groups and gender. The findings on heterogeneity by systemic features and by individual characteristics feed into an analysis that treats LTC as social investment. They can explain differences in the nature of social investment, the flows of potential costs and benefits and their distribution but also on the identity of those undertaking long term care social investment decisions.
Care in times of choice and competition – A synthesis of the concept(s) of care and their relevance for mainstream economics Ricardo Rodrigues
European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Austria
rodrigues(at)euro.centre.org
The introduction of market-based mechanisms for the provision of care has been one of the defining characteristics of changes introduced in long-term care (LTC) systems. This transformation explicitly portraits users as consumers of care and implicitly assumes care to be a conventional commodity liable to be traded in marketplaces. The concept of user as consumer of care has triggered a broad debate, but a similar discussion on the concept of care as a commodity and its implications for the theories underpinning choice and competition have thus far lagged behind. This paper aims to bridge this gap by contributing to engage the diverse literature on care with the literature on choice and competition and critically synthesizing the implications that the concept of care has for market-based developments in LTC.
Drawing on a range of mostly theoretical literature, the paper argues that the concept of care as a relationship, central to feminism literature, and
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motivations for caring based on moral obligations have significant implications for choice and competition. They establish care as an experience good based on intangible caring relationships; whilst also pointing towards the potential for LTC to be morally contested commodity. The latter argument is of crucial importance in the context of choice, as it highlights the relevance of the concept of social embeddedness to understand users’ decisions and questions the role of money in caring transactions that might be better described as gift exchanges akin to Akerlof's depiction of certain labour market transactions. The paper concludes by arguing the direct relevance of these findings for policy and research.
Can an expansion of informal care significantly reduce the need for institutional care for the elderly?
Mark Elchardus
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium mark.elchardus(at)vub.ac.be
The paper is based on a pure probability sample of 2891 inhabitants, 45 tot 75 years old, living in de Flemish (Dutch speaking) region of Belgium, drawn on the basis of the national population register (the net respons rate was 53%). The suvey dealt with various aspects of aging, dependency and care. The present paper focuses on two questions: (1) to what extend does the present level of informal care for dependent elderly person avoids or postpones long term institutional care, and (2) can a further increase of informal care be expected.
On the basis of the survey it is estimated that the 2.3 milion people aged 45 tot 75 living in the Flemish region, currently invest 123.000 full time equivalents in care, wich postpones or avoids about 71.000 placements in institutional care (compared tot the currently existing 75.000 beds currently available in the region). Clearly, informal care currently contributes very importantly to care for the dependent elderly people.
Former care givers were also asked if the institutional placement of the dependent person for which they cared, could haven been postponed or avoided. On the basis of their answers it is estimated that, under ideal conditions, this would only be the case for 3000 tot 6000 dependent persons. A further expansion of informal care can not be significantly counted on to slow the rate at which institutional care will have expand i the next 15 years.
Characteristics and determinants of
intergenerational transfers among families using mixed care for older people
Valentina Hlebec, Masa Filipovic Hrast
Univerity of Ljubljana, Slovenia; Univerity of Ljubljana, Slovenia
valentina.hlebec(at)fdv.uni-lj.si, masa.filipovic(at)fdv.uni-lj.si
Provision of care to dependent old parents or parents
in law is an important part of intergenerational exchanges within families, especially in countries where long-term care system is based predominantly on family care. However, in mixed care networks, comprised from family carer(s) and formal carer(s), care tasks are shared between family members and formal carers. Apart from care shared by formal and informal carers, adult children and their parents may have financial and time exchanges. We will use the first Slovenian national survey of social home care users and their family members, collected in 2013 to observe characteristics and determinants of intergenerational transfers among families that use mixed care, i.e. a combination of formal and informal care for older people. We will observe the main determinants of intergenerational transfers within the diads of users and their family carers, such as household type, age, distance between caregiver and care-receiver, and extent of care tasks.
RN01 | Session 01c Inequalities
Inequalities in the broken heart syndrome Filip Oskar Teodor Wigselius
Stockholm University, Sweden filip.wigselius(at)sociology.su.se
Excess mortality after widowhood differs for men and women. Previous studies also have shown that socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with factors, e.g. access to social- and other types of support, which have a bearing on the widowhood effect. I argue, that theory indicates an interaction between gender and SES. As both, the number of widows/widowers and the diversity in SES is increasing, it is necessary to examine these factors jointly.
First results using panel data of from the Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old (SWEOLD), confirm the hypothesis that the relationship between SES and the widowhood effect differs between women and men. The widowhood effect was relatively larger among women with higher socioeconomic status among those with lower, while no differences were found among men. Analyses using Swedish total population register data will be ready in time for the ESA meeting.
What Equality? Life Course Diversity and Inequality in Later Life in Changing Sweden Andreas Motel-Klingebiel, Susanne Kelfve
Linköping University, Sweden; Linköping University, Sweden
andreas.motel-klingebiel(at)liu.se, susanne.kelfve(at)liu.se
This paper discusses shifts in inequality over time in Sweden, which serves as a case example of a quickly changing welfare society. Its 60+ population of today faced the golden age of capitalism, prosperity and welfare but also crises, new uncertainties, erosions and shifts in social norms and organisation of labour.
These changes add to life course inhomogeneity, generate asynchronies, and create winners and losers regarding life chances and inclusion. Transformations in life courses and social institutions exacerbate the cumulation of (dis)advantage and have crucial impacts on employment, retirement transitions and later life.
Aspects like gender, cohort, education, ethnicity and others moderate these dynamics. Increasing disparities between societies give rise to migration and contribute in turn to differences within countries.
This study deals with changing population compositions, patterns and later-life consequences of life courses in Sweden focusing on inter- and intra-cohort disparities. By taking an international comparative perspective, Swedish trends are contrasted with those in other European societies.
Based on extensive Swedish registry information and European survey data from EU-SILC this study assesses changes in trajectories and distributions in a cohortsequential perspective. Results find significant shifts in life course patterns that are fortified by variations in population compositions with disadvantaged groups as forerunners in overall relative declines in later-life economic positions, and increasing intracohort inequalities corresponding with unexpected drawbacks for many as well as new possibilities for others
Paid work after retirement and marital quality: Are there differences between men and women?
Andreas Mergenthaler, Volker Cihlar
Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany;
Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany andreas.mergenthaler(at)bib.bund.de,
volker.cihlar(at)bib.bund.de
Background: Paid work after retirement has increased in Germany during the last years. Several studies have addressed the prevalence of post-retirement work and its associating factors. However, the association between post-retirement work and marital quality as an indicator of retirement adjustment has not been studied in Germany so far. The study addressed the question (i) whether post-retirement work is associated with marital quality and (ii) whether this association is moderated by gender.
Data and method: The survey “Transitions and Old Age Potential” (TOP), a representative sample of 5,002 respondents aged 55 to 70 years was used.
Two indicators of marital quality were analysed in hierarchical binary regressions: Subjectively rated change in partnership since retirement and partnership satisfaction. Post-retirement work was included as a binary indicator along with socio-demographic and transition-related variables, especially gender and the interaction between gender and employment status in retirement.
Results: The results show that paid work in retirement is not directly associated with marital quality, neither for men nor for women. However, the association between post-retirement work and the subjective change of the partnership quality after retirement was moderated by gender. Women in paid work after
retirement had a significantly higher probability of reporting no change or a worsening partnership quality compared to male respondents.
Discussion: The findings of the study add to the international debate by focusing on the setting of a conservative welfare state like Germany. It emphasizes the importance of a gender-related perspective. However, further longitudinal analyses are needed to address questions of causal inference.
Population ageing in Russia Elena Nikolaevna Gorbaneva NRU HSE, Russian Federation helen563381994(at)gmail.com
The last decades of the demographic processes in both developed and developing countries are characterized by population aging. Shifts in the demographic structure determines the main directions of development of health and social protection based on determinants of healthy longevity among the main of which deals with the social status of the elderly, their health status, level of efficiency and mental state Of particular practical significance at the present stage is a series of annual nationwide representative surveys on the basis of probabilistic stratified multistage territorial sample developed with the participation of leading experts in this field, which is an international research project National research University - Higher school of Economics and ZAO
“Demoscope” with the participation of the population Center University of North Carolina at chapel hill (USA) and the Institute of sociology. Since 2010, the project received a new name “the Russian monitoring of economic situation and population health of the HSE” (RLMS-HSE). The results of these studies served as the basis for the work of the M.
Kolosnitsyna, N. Khorkina and H. Dorzhieva “What Happens To Happiness When People Get Older?
Socio-Economic Determinants Of Life Satisfaction In Later Life”, which examines the satisfaction of the elderly life and, as a consequence, identifying key factors to healthy longevity.
RN01 | Session 02a The Oldest Old
Lifestyles of the Very Old – A Qualitative Analysis Luise Geithner
University of Cologne, Germany luise.geithner(at)uni-koeln.de
According to Bourdieu, lifestyles are class-specific patterns of taste and behavior. While Bourdieu analyzed lifestyles of middle-aged employed people, it is questionable if his assumptions about the structuring of the social space hold true also for those in old or very old age. Especially within the age group of the very old changes in health, mobility or social network gain importance. However, lifestyle research often treats age as a background variable only and rarely looks at expressive behavior specific to very old age. Hence, lifestyles of the very old are less differentiated and mainly associated with passivity.
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Therefore, a qualitative study was performed to shed light on the specific range of expressive behavior of the very old. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were realized with Germans aged 80 and older living privately as well as institutionalized. The analysis follows the main research questions: How are lifestyles expressed in very old age and what function do they have? How are the lifestyles linked to living conditions as well as social origin and biography?
Thereby, stability rooted in the habitus as well as change due to age are taken into consideration.
Furthermore, taste with regard to music, reading, TV and art is analyzed. First results show a broad range of expressive behavior. In addition, also people in need of care or living in nursing homes show a strong interest to maintain or regain important parts of their lifestyles.
Spirituality of the Oldest Old (80+): Struggle between Traditional Religion and Post-Modernistic Spirituality
Anna Janhsen
University of Cologne, Germany Anna.Janhsen(at)uni-koeln.de
To enable well-being of the oldest old (80+) despite a decline of physical and mental capacities and social losses, spirituality is considered as an important, independent component. Especially in modern and post-modernistic social approaches (eg New Age-movement, Esoteric or Body-Mind-Wellness) spirituality is often conceptualized in contrast to traditional and institutional religion. The European tradition theorizes spirituality in contrast rather within the context of religion.
These ambiguous and more and more merging understandings of spirituality within the local social sphere alongside different social developments regarding the status of spirituality and religion in society (secularization, individualization, liberalization as well as fundamentalism) are particular challenges in the lifelong engaging especially of the oldest old with questions regarding their spirituality and transmitted religious belief systems nowadays.
Therefore, the impact of this social controversy regarding the understanding and function of spirituality on the subjective conceptualization of the oldest old is analyzed in qualitative interviews (n=21) with Germans 80+years from Christian, Islamic and Judaist cultural and religious backgrounds as well as non-religious backgrounds. In addition, the importance of religious socialization and social changes for the spiritual development, its relevance to find meaning in and of life and its impact on their well-being are discussed and linked back to different traditions of the understanding of spirituality.
Factors associated with decline in high morale in a five-year follow-up of very old people
Marina Näsman, Johan Niklasson, Yngve Gustafson, Birgitta Olofsson, Hugo Lövheim, Mikael Nygård, Fredrica Nyqvist
Åbo Akademi University, Finland; The Society of
Swedish Literature in Finland; Umeå University, Sweden; Umeå University, Sweden; Umeå University, Sweden; Umeå University, Sweden; Åbo Akademi University, Finland; Åbo Akademi University, Finland manasman(at)abo.fi, johan.niklasson(at)home.se, yngve.gustafson(at)umu.se,
birgitta.olofsson(at)umu.se, hugo.lovheim(at)umu.se, mikael.nygard(at)abo.fi, fredrica.nyqvist(at)abo.fi
Introduction: Morale in old age can be described as a future-oriented optimism and consists of an overall sense of well-being and a certain acceptance of changes in life associated with aging. Our research has previously shown that high morale in very old age is associated with increased survival and lower risk of depressive disorders. The aim of the present study is to identify variables associated with a decline in high morale over a five-year follow-up period in very old people.
Methods: The study is based on data from the Umeå85+/GERDA-study, which is a population based study conducted in Northern Sweden and Western Finland. The sample of the present study consists of 174 individuals who were 85 years or older and had high morale at baseline. Morale was measured with the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS). Logistic regression was used for the multivariate analyses.
Results: Forty-seven (27%) individuals had a significant decline in morale over five years. In the univariate analyses, social isolation and poor self-rated health were significantly associated with a decline in morale five years later. Social isolation remained significant on a <0.05 level and poor self-rated health on a <0.1 level when controlling for age, gender, country and years of education.
Discussion: The majority of the sample had no significant decline in morale over the follow-up period.
Identifying variables associated with decline in morale can, however, have important implications for the well-being of very old people.
Health and social factors associated with the rejection of active euthanasia in community-dwelling older subjects: evidences from an Italian case study
Stefano Poli, Valeria Pandolfini
Di.S.For., Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy;
Di.S.For., Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy Stefano.poli(at)unige.it, Valeria.pandolfini(at)unige.it
Background: The major extension of late life expectancy in last decades has increased the significance of end-of-life issues, particularly among elderly people, considering both the role of medical practices in shaping and defining dying trajectories and the differences in national laws and in public attitudes about preservation of self-dignity and removal of pain in death. Avoiding a prolonged, painful and undignified death provides for many a rationale for euthanasia or physician assisted death, legalized in few countries and largely debated in most of the others. On the contrary, the fear of increased pressure