Data Navigator

The Data Navigator was developed as part of Work Package 2 of FutureGen. Data cleaning and preparation of the data for the Data Navigator was done by the European Centre and the Karolinska Institutet/Stockholm University. FutureGen team members and Sounding Board members for the FutureGen project provided feedback on the Data Navigator throughout its creation.

The data for the Data Navigator were retrieved from the SHARE website. The ADL and IADL limitations variables were taken from the imputation module. Variables for informal caregiving and receiving were created from the social support module, while the formal care variable was created from the health care module.

As the result of limited sample sizes for many countries, particularly when disaggregating by income and wealth, countries are aggregated into 4 regions based on typology of ‘care regime’. For the purposes of the Data Navigator, care regimes are primarily characterised according to their degree of familialisation, as well as public provision of long-term care.

• Northern countries (Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands) are characterized by generous public coverage of long-term care, a high provision of formal care and low provision of informal care.
• Continental countries (Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium) are characterized by a mixed provision of formal and informal care, as well as medium level of spending.
• Southern countries (Italy and Spain) are characterized primarily by family-oriented care and a low level of public expenditure for long-term care.
• Eastern countries (Czech Republic and Poland) are characterized by a high provision of informal care and overall low spending on long-term care by the state. This care regime varies from the Southern countries in that strategies for governing long-term care policies are in the process of being developed.

The Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a nationally representative longitudinal survey of non-institutionalized adults aged 50+ years across 28 European countries and Israel. SHARE collects data on health, socio-economic status and social and family networks of individuals on a biennial-basis (every 2 years). Seven waves are currently available, spanning from 2004 to 2017. For more information on sampling, please consult the SHARE website.

The sample used in the Data Navigator consists of all surveyed individuals aged 65+ years (or 50+ years in the case of informal caregiving). The only sample restrictions include having available information on the health or long-term care variables of interest, as well as income and wealth. To account for non-response for these variables, cross-sectional weights have been applied throughout the Data Navigator.