Potential and Limitation of Independent Living

Summary

The surveys provide a comprehensive picture of the structure and need for help and care. The MuG studies I and III focus on people in private households and the MuG studies II and IV provide representative data on people living in institutions in Germany. The MuG III also includes a small sub-sample of cognitively impaired persons, which provides a description of the specific situation of people with dementia and their needs and care arrangements. If participants were not able to take part, a family member or other proxy was interviewed. To be representative for people in need of care, people over the age of 70 were oversampled for Mug I and III. A wide range of indicators allow an analysis of the potential and limitation of independent living in private households and institutions, however the data is not available for scientific use. If there is interest in further analysis, this is done by the data holder. Therefore, the potential of this data is not used. The cross-sectional surveys focusing on private households were more likely to include people in need of help and care who were relatively independent and living on their own.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection occasional

Data gathering method
Face-to-face

Access to data

Conditions of access

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

Formats available

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
MuG I: Data collected from 1991-1993; sample size of 25,736 households and 2,950 individuals in need of care. MuG II: Data collected from 1994-1996; sample size of 535 institutions and 4,464 residents. MuG III: Data collected from 2002-2005; sample size of 25,095 households and 3, 622 individuals in need of care. MuG IV: Data collected from 2005-2007; sample size of 609 institutions and 4,229 residents.

First year of collection
1991

Stratification if applicable

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
National

Age range
18 years and older (MuG I & MuG III); 60 years and older (MuG II & MuG IV)

Statistical representativeness
Special group, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The MuG I and the MuG III focus on the living situation of people in need of care living in private households. The cross-sectional surveys provide information on the type and degree of care needed, specific medical needs, support network, arrangements of help and care taking, professional help, aid supply, residential environment, care-specific housing facilities, socio-demographics, material resources and region. The data allows for a trend analysis of the situation of people in need of care in private households between 1993 and 2002. The MuG II and MuG IV focus on the living situation of people in need of care living in institutions. The nursing staff was interviewed about the living situation and characteristics of the institution. The studies provide information on the home residents regarding socio-demographics, mobility limitations, form and degree of care need, care situation, residential environment, social contacts. In relation to the institutions, the following information was gathered: type, size and type of operation, care and procedure concept, range of services, professional situation in regard to number of staff, inclusion of family members and volunteers. The data allows for a trend analysis of the situation of people in need of care in institutions between 1994 and 2005.

Linkage

Standardisation
Instruments were in part standardised questions, scales and tests, e.g. measure on activities of daily living (ADL) / instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) or cognitive impairment test (6CIT, Brooke and Bullock, 1999).

Possibility of linkage among databases
No

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
Not possible to evaluate

Breaks
All MuG surveys were carried out by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung under the direction of U. Schneekloth. The goal of MuG I and MuG III, as well as MuG II and MuG IV, were to be comparable in regard to methodological issues and content.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
Not possible to evaluate

Governance

Contact information
Ulrich Schneekloth
TNS Infratest Sozialforschung GmbH
Landsberger Straße 284
80687 München Germany Phone: +49 89 5600-1424
Email: ulrich.schneekloth(at)tns-infratest.com
Url: http://www.tns-infratest.com/SoFo/Expertise/Hilfe_und_Pflegebedarf.asp

Timeliness, transparency
The first results have been published about 1 year after data collection.