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– SHARE ndings consistently show the importance of studying the subject of loneliness among older people. e least wealthy, in particular, also experience the highest risk of loneliness (Arezzo and Giudici, 2017; Niedzwiedz et al., 2016). is can be compensated by social activities but social participation is much less common among the poorest, o en due to lack of nancial resources. SHARE data suggests that increasing social participation among the least wealthy is likely to reduce inequalities among older people in Europe.
– Socioeconomic circumstances during childhood are strong predictors of health
even in old age. moreover, although childhood is an important period for e ective intervention, it is not the only opportunity to prevent future problems. Negative socioeconomic circumstances such as child poverty can be compensated e.g. by good education leading to more favourable living conditions in adulthood (Pakpahan, Ho mann and Kröger 2017). ese ndings were made possible by SHARE’s collection of retrospective information which allows for the analysis of life course developments.
is selection of ndings makes clear that a very important aspect for SHARE is to continue providing an observatory of the ongoing reforms of pension and health care systems in Europe. Such a cross-national observatory is essential to evaluate the e ects of reforms on health, social and economic status, inequality, retirement behaviour and many more aspects of the wellbeing of European citizens, especially as the baby-boom generation is now starting to retire. SHARE’s strength is to provide an excellent basis of variation in policy reforms across countries, which is required to identify their e ects.
Beyond generating and stimulating purely scienti c output, SHARE is an important inst- rument for the European Commission, especially for economic and social benchmarking exercises as part of the European Semester. Among regular users of SHARE data are the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial A airs (DG ECFIN); the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE); and the Directorate-General for Social A airs and Inclusion (DG EmPL). Furthermore, SHARE has been intensely used by other international organisations such as the OECD and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Some examples on the Eu and the national level illustrate this:
– Dg eCfin has used SHARE data to add detail for its long-term projections of pension and health care expenditures. Such detailed data included health services utilisation, morbidity by age and years before death, and retirement propensities by age and health.
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