Quality of Life, Health and the Great Recession in Spain: Why Older People Matter?
Open Access
- 19 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Vol. 18 (4), 2028
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042028
Abstract
The financial crisis of 2008 precipitated the “Great Recession”. In this scenario, we took Spain as a country of study, because although it experienced significant negative shocks associated with macroeconomic variables (GDP or unemployment), its welfare indicators have been marked by limited changes. This study used data from waves 2 and 4 (years 2006–2007 and 2010–2012, respectively) of the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Specifically, through logistic regressions we have analysed the effects of socioeconomic, demographic, health and “Great Recession” factors on the quality of life (QoL) of elders in Spain. Although QoL did not change too much during the “Great Recession”, the results confirmed the importance of several factors (such as chronicity) that affect the satisfaction with the QoL among the older people. In this regard, statistically significant effects were obtained for individual exposure to recession. Therefore, a decrease in household income in the crisis period with respect to the pre-crisis period would increase by 44% the probability of reporting a low QoL (OR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.00–2.07). Furthermore, gender differences were observed. Health and socioeconomic variables are the most significant when determining individual QoL. Therefore, when creating policies, establishing multidisciplinary collaborations is essential.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cross-National Variation in Quality of Life of Care-Dependent Elders in Europe: A Two-Step Approach Combining Multilevel Regression and Fuzzy-Set QCAInternational Journal of Sociology, 2015
- Macroeconomic implications of population ageing and selected policy responsesThe Lancet, 2014
- Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageingThe Lancet, 2014
- Was the economic crisis of 2008 good for Icelanders? Impact on health behaviorsEconomics & Human Biology, 2014
- Data Resource Profile: The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)International Journal of Epidemiology, 2013
- The effect of population aging on health expenditure growth: a critical reviewEuropean Journal of Ageing, 2013
- Age, Health and Life Satisfaction Among Older EuropeansSocial Indicators Research, 2011
- The public health effect of economic crises and alternative policy responses in Europe: an empirical analysisThe Lancet, 2009
- Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-beingJournal of Economic Psychology, 2007
- Applied Logistic RegressionTechnometrics, 1992