Project

Discipline

Aging; Old Age; Inequalities; Human Development

Lead
Lay summary
This project proposes to investigate the living conditions of the aged population in Switzerland and to address the diversity of these conditions using an interdisciplinary approach. The study will rely on a survey that will be conducted in 2010. For two French-speaking cantons, the data collected will be confronted to the findings of previous surveys conducted in 1979 and 1994/95, with the aim of estimating changes and continuity in the living conditions.Aging is a major challenge in all industrialized countries. Indeed, over the last century, the proportion of people aged 80 has multiplied by eight! Furthermore, in recent decades, the expectation of life without major illness has risen faster than life expectancy, while the prevalence of dependency decreased among the elderly. A substantial number of positive changes occurred from 1979 to 1994/95. However, nothing ensures that similar trends are persisting. Further, the characteristics of the aged population in 2010 cannot be satisfactorily predicted on the basis of previous data. Indeed, the structure of the aged population drastically changed. More importantly, new generations carrying their own their specificities will soon reach the age of retirement and old age. Provided these various changes, our project will address two major issues simultaneously: heterogeneity among the elderly, i.e. inequalities, and sustainability of the previous positive trends in terms of social participation, health, and longevity.Our theoretical approach will be centered on the concept of resources, as conceived in the theory of lifespan human development and further enriched by sociologists within the life course paradigm. Globally, we consider how resources are built through individual lives embedded in family trajectories and socioeconomic, cultural and political contexts. Thus, we will first estimate how health, family, residency, and occupational lifelong trajectories have constructed the pool of resources available to aged individuals. We further intend to assess the diversity of these resources and the way they are managed by individuals to best maintain an active life, high levels of well-being, autonomy, and health. We will also consider how, in the current experiences of aging, available individual resources interact with accessible sociostructural resources. Such a resource-based, interdisciplinary approach will provide a powerful tool with which to identify the most relevant predictors of well-being, in the past and the present, as well as the levers on which individual action and social policies can push to predict losses and/or promote successful aging processes.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 21.02.2013

Active participation

Self-organised

Active participation

Self-organised

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Title	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

This project proposes to investigate the living conditions of the aged population in Switzerland and to address the diversity of these conditions using an interdisciplinary approach. The study will rely on a survey that will be conducted in 2010 in two French-speaking and two German-speaking areas. For the two former, the data collected will be confronted to the findings of previous surveys conducted in 1979 and 1994/95, with the aim of estimating changes and continuity in the living conditions of senior citizens.Aging is a major challenge in all industrialized countries, and Switzerland is no exception. Indeed, over the last century, the proportion of individuals aged 60 and above has multiplied by three, while the proportion of people aged 80 has multiplied by eight! Furthermore, in recent decades, the expectation of life without major illness has risen faster than life expectancy, while the prevalence of dependency decreased among the elderly. A substantial number of positive changes occurred from 1979 to 1994/95. However, nothing ensures that similar trends are persisting. Further, the characteristics of the aged population in 2010 cannot be satisfactorily predicted on the basis of previous data. Indeed, the structure of the aged population has drastically changed over the last decades. More importantly, new generations carrying their own their specificities will soon reach the age of retirement and old age. The massive aging reported in the immigrant population in Switzerland constitutes a clear example of such a compositional change. Provided these various changes, the proposed project intends to address two major issues simultaneously: heterogeneity among the elderly, i.e., diversity and inequalities, and sustainability of the previous positive trends in terms of social participation, health, and longevity.Our theoretical approach will be centered on the concept of resources, as conceived in the theory of lifespan human development proposed by the psychologist Paul Baltes, and further enriched by sociologists within the life course paradigm. Globally, our research design considers how resources are built through individual lives embedded in family trajectories and socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts. Thus, we will first estimate how health, family, residency, and occupational lifelong trajectories have constructed the pool of resources available to aged individuals. We further intend to assess the diversity of these resources and the way they are managed by individuals to best maintain an active life, high levels of well-being, autonomy, and health. After connecting the past to the present, we will also consider how, in the current experiences of aging, available individual resources interact with accessible sociostructural resources. From that perspective, the comparison of four different political regions (the cantons of Geneva, Valais, Bern, and Basel) will be highly profitable. Moreover, in the French-speaking areas (Geneva and Valais), we will benefit greatly from the unique opportunity to address recent historical changes through a comparison of our results with a new analysis of the surveys conducted in 1979 and 1994/95. This constitutes a unique opportunity in the European continent to examine the evolution of the aged population across the last 30 years. Finally, such a resource-based, interdisciplinary approach will provide a powerful tool with which to identify the most relevant predictors of well-being, in the past and the present, as well as the levers on which individual action and social policies can push to predict losses and/or promote successful aging processes. To face the challenge of providing an updated and more representative picture of aging in Switzerland, this Sinergia application engages a distinguished team of 17 experimented scholars from 6 disciplines (geriatrics: 2; psychiatric geriatrics: 1; psychology: 5; sociology: 7; social policy studies: 1; and demography and socioeconomics: 1). Rooted in a common theoretical model, shared concepts, and common objectives, together, we aim to solve the tension between continuity (comparison of our findings with those from studies conducted in 1979 and 1994/95) and innovation (better tools, new issues, and a more national representation).