Project

Discipline

Ageing; SHARE; Multidisciplinary; Survey; Retirement; Infrastructure; Health

Lead
Der Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) wurde erstmals 2004 als repräsentative Befragung der Bevölkerung im Alter 50+ in 11 europäischen Ländern erhoben. Das aktuelle Projekt betrifft die Durchführung der sechsten Befragungsrunde sowie die Vorbereitungen zur siebten Befragungsrunde für die Jahre 2014-2017.
Lay summary
Der Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) wurde erstmals 2004 als repräsentative Befragung der Bevölkerung im Alter 50+ in 11 europäischen Ländern erhoben. Da die über 30.000 Studienteilnehmer in ganz Europa im Abstand von zwei Jahren befragt werden, können Wissenschaftler die Veränderung der wirtschaftlichen, gesundheitlichen und sozialen Lage älterer Menschen in Europa beobachten. So kann untersucht werden, wie einschneidende Ereignisse im Lebensverlauf wie z.B. der Renteneintritt oder Verwitwung bewältigt werden oder wie sich Änderungen der institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen (z.B. im Gesundheits- oder Rentensystem) auf die Lebensqualität älterer Europäer auswirken. Mittlerweile wurden bereits fünf Befragungsrunden erfolgreich durchgeführt. Das aktuelle Projekt betrifft die Durchführung der sechsten Befragungsrunde sowie die Vorbereitungen zur siebten Befragungsrunde für die Jahre 2014-2017.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 11.12.2013

Self-organised

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is an internationally recog-nized multidisciplinary, cross-national and longitudinal general-purpose research infrastructure that gathers micro data on the life circumstances of more than 60,000 individuals aged 50 or older from 20 European countries since 2004. SHARE provides a critical research infrastructure to enhance our understanding of how ageing processes unfold in different cultures, societies and political environments over time as well as to help develop strategies for improving human development, economic and social performance in the face of substantial demographic changes over the coming decades. To this end, SHARE takes a holistic view of the ageing process, covering a range of important life domains such as health, socioeconomic status or social and family networks as well as collecting comprehensive retrospective data on individual life histories. SHARE is harmonized with a range of other international ageing surveys such as the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and other international ageing surveys, which allows for further international comparisons beyond the boundaries of Europe. SHARE delivers crucial insights on the life of middle-aged and older persons from different European countries and allows researchers from multiple disciplines to study the impact of aging on the dynamics of various life domains across different countries. Reflecting its importance for the research community, SHARE has become the first ever European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) on May 25, 2011.Switzerland has continuously participated in SHARE since its start in 2004. Since then, the Swiss country team of SHARE has successfully participated in all five rounds of data collection for SHARE. Affirming its commitment to SHARE as a major international research infrastruc-ture of national importance, the Swiss Confederation decided to formally participate in the SHARE-ERIC and explicitly include SHARE in the service level agreement 2013-2016 between the Swiss Confederation and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Realizing the Swiss com-mitment to SHARE as a major international research infrastructure, the present proposal re-quests funding for the next round of data collection for the Swiss component study of SHARE (Wave 6), which aims at reinforcing the longitudinal dimension of SHARE in Switzerland and complementing the existing data with new measurements, including biomarkers. Reflecting the newly adopted three year funding period for research infrastructures such as SHARE, we further request partial funding for the subsequent wave of SHARE (Wave 7), whose preparation will begin in 2016 and whose fieldwork is scheduled to start in January 2017.