SHARE – Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

Summary

SHARE is the first cross-national survey extensively and comparatively exploring topics related to working conditions, health and wellbeing, social engagement, and wellbeing status of the population 50+ in Europe. It is also the first survey that brings together harmonised data on financial and time transfers, given and received. It therefore allows for studying the ageing process and its consequences from different angles. A particular strength of the SHARE data is the broad set of health measures and biomarkers that enable researchers to validate respondents’ own perception of health. The core questionnaire of SHARE is stable over time, but its design allows for the inclusion of new modules and innovative research questions according to the circumstances of each wave. This has allowed for the inclusion of additional physical measurements in Wave 2 and a social connectedness module in Wave 4. In wave 5, the topic of uses in technology will be included and thus SHARE will allow for studying a rather neglected topic in ageing research. One of the main advantages of SHARE is the ex-ante harmonisation at all stages of the survey process. Therefore, the survey has one common generic questionnaire that is processed automatically in one common CAPI instrument. SHARE also does some ex-post harmonisation in the areas of education (ISCED) and occupation (ISCO, NACE). Furthermore, there are item specific differences, e.g. in answer categories, especially when it comes to institutional features. Regarding the international comparability of the results, SHARE was created to follow and is harmonised with the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Moreover, SHARE has several sister studies: CHARLS (Chinese Health and Retirement Survey), ELSA-Brasil (Estudo Longitudinal de Saúde do Adulto), JSTAR (The Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement), KLoSA (The Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging), LASI (The Longitudinal Aging Study in India), MHAS (Mexican Health and Aging Study) and TILDA (The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing). A particular strength of the survey is based on the combination of SHARELIFE with SHARE and ELSA data. This operation allows for the analysis of the current status of the surveyed, as well as their life-course. Wave 3 SHARELIFE is that it collects detailed retrospective life-histories in 16 countries in 2008-09 and thus gives the possibility to researchers to study different themes in longitudinal perspective without having to wait for the cohorts to reach advanced age. Of course, it should be kept in mind that retrospective responses might be influenced by memory loss. Weaknesses: One of the main concerns regarding SHARE data is the generally decreasing survey participation rates and moderate levels of attrition, though in comparison with other European and recent US survey studies, the overall response rate of SHARE is rather high. SHARE’s main strategy to cope with attrition is the provision of ex-post calibrated weights following the procedure of Deville and Saerndal. The use of SHARE data requires a learning process by users in terms of meaningful data preparation and analysis. This is due to its cross-national and multidisciplinary nature, as well as the complexity of the phenomena covered by the survey. The SHARE team is making an effort to minimise these challenges by extensive data cleaning, provision of generated variables, a comprehensive documentation measures and intensive user support (by email, phone and in-person training). Moreover, a special training dataset for new users is in preparation. Intergenerational Solidarity A particular strength of SHARE is that it includes rich background information of respondents’ children. It is therefore possible to study how older Europeans today engage in intergenerational transfers and which individual and family characteristics influence the private transfers.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Survey same

Data gathering method
Telephone
Face-to-face
Other: The interviewers used computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) to collect most of the data in all waves. Self-administered questionnaires were handed out in Waves 1, 2, and 4 after completion of the CAPI. Starting in Wave 2, end-of-life interviews (CATI, CAPI) on deceased respondents were administered to relatives or other individuals (proxy) close to the deceased. Proxy interviews were also used when the respondent was not able to do the interview due to for example health problems.

Access to data

Conditions of access
Access to data is granted for scientific purposes after registry and is free of charge. Data is easily downloadable from the project's website. Researchers must submit an application (available at: http://www.share-project.org/fileadmin/pdf_documentation/SHARE_Data_Statement.pdf) in order to obtain a login and password for the data download. The login details remain valid for all further releases of SHARE data as long as the scientific affiliation indicated at registration does not change.

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
microdata

Formats available
SPSS, STATA

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
Wave 1 SHARE baseline study: data collected in 2004/2005; sample size of 31,115 interviews (release 2.5.0). Wave 2: data collected in 2006/07; sample size of 34,415 Wave 2 interviews, 533 end-of-life interviews, and 18,742 longitudinal interviews (release 2.5.0). Wave 3 (SHARELIFE): data collected in 2008/09; sample size of 26,836 interviews, 1,139 end-of-life interviews, and 1,158 first interviews with new or previously non-cooperating spouses (release 1.0.0). Wave 4: data collected in 2010/11; sample size of 58,489 interviews, of which 21,566 were longitudinal, 1,110 end-of-life interviews (release 1.1.1). All respondents who were interviewed in any previous wave and their partners are part of the longitudinal sample.

First year of collection
2004

Stratification if applicable
Based on age; in Germany and the Netherlands stratification is based on region.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
2004 SHARE baseline study: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland. Wave 2: 15 countries (+ the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland). Wave 3 (SHARELIFE): 14 countries. Wave 4: 16 countries (+ Estonia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Portugal), excluding Greece, which could not take part in wave 4 due to the financial crisis. The Irish SHARE study was merged with TILDA – the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing - and there is no stand-alone SHARE in Ireland after wave 3.

Age range
Population aged 50+; Wave 1 SHARE baseline study: all individuals born in 1954 or earlier; Wave 2: all individuals born in 1956 or earlier; Wave 4: all individuals born in 1960 or earlier

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The main goal of SHARE is to provide data to better understand the ageing process and how it affects individuals in the diverse cultural settings of Europe. The SHARE dataset includes cross-national information on economic circumstances, health, wellbeing, as well as integration into family and social networks. It also includes rich information on the socio-economic background of the surveyed individuals and their family members (parents and children), such as gender, age, marital status, educational level, current work, income, and living arrangements. SHARE data from Waves 1, 2 and 4 deal with respondents’ current living conditions, whereas Wave 3 (SHARELIFE) was conducted as retrospective survey and provides information about life histories. More specifically, SHARELIFE data provides information about childhood living circumstances, partners, children, accommodation, employment and wellbeing and health conditions. Thus, it allows for the study of ageing from a life-course perspective. Wave 4 data can also be used to disentangle the influences of the economic crisis on healthy ageing and intergenerational solidarity in different European countries. More specifically, the SHARE data covers: Intergenerational Relations: SHARE provides data on household arrangements and proximity between family members, as well as exchange of support. In SHARE, accurate information on a child (martial status, partner, transition to adulthood, employment status, education, and frequency of contact) is available for up to four children. SHARE also provides information on practical (support with household tasks) and personal care (e.g. dressing, bathing, eating) and allows for the study of informal care.

Linkage

Standardisation
Education variables are coded following ISCED. Occupation and economic activity follow ISCO and NACE codes respectively.

Possibility of linkage among databases
At this time, the linkage with administrative databases is only possible for Germany. SHARE cooperates with the German Pension Fund (DRV) and has linked the German survey data with administrative data held by the DRV in a pilot study in Wave 3 and Wave 4. The administrative data consists of two parts: the first part is longitudinal and includes socio-demographic characteristics (such as age, sex, number, and age of children) and detailed information about work history, as well as all activities, which generate public pension entitlements. These data is available for persons aged 14 and over. The second part is cross-sectional and includes information on the calculation of pension benefits. It is only available for retirees. The project of linking SHARE will continue in Wave 5 and will also be expanded to Austria, Estonia, the Netherlands, and Sweden. To get access to the administrative data of the German Pension Fund, which can be linked to SHARE survey data, researchers must submit an additional form that is also available at the SHARE web page (http://www.share-project.org/data-access-documentation/record-linkage.html). After successful registration, the data will be provided on a CD free of charge.

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Data is checked for entry errors and corrected if possible.

Breaks
Even though SHARE is a panel survey with a core questionnaire stable over time, innovative research questions, physical measurements or modules have been added in each wave. For example, in Wave 2, two physical measurements – peak flow and chair stand – were added; whereas Wave 4 implemented a completely new module about social networks.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
Consistent coding is used and well documented. The survey is harmonised ex-ante and uses a common generic questionnaire. SHARE also does some ex-post harmonisation in the areas of education (ISCED) and occupation (ISCO, NACE). The dataset provides further generated variables that ease cross-national analysis.

Governance

Contact information
Munich Center for the Economics of Aging / SHARE: http://www.share-project.org/contact-organisation/project-coordination.html
Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA)
Amalienstr. 33
80799 Munich Germany Phone:
Email: info(at)share-project.org
Url: http://www.share-project.org

Timeliness, transparency
Wave 1 SHARE baseline study: data collected in 2004 and first released in 2005 Wave 2: data collected in 2006/07 and first released in 2008 Wave 3 (SHARELIFE): data collected in 2008/09 and first released in 2010 Wave 4: data collected in 2010/11 and first released in 2012. Fieldwork in Poland was somewhat longer and continued until 2012.