Quality of Life, Health and the Great Recession in Spain: Why Older People Matter?

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 18; no. 4; p. 2028
• Main Authors: Blázquez-Fernández, Carla, Cantarero-Prieto, David, Pascual-Sáez, Marta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19-02-2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Chronic illnesses; Crises; Economic crisis; Economic Recession; Europe; Family income; Gender; Gender aspects; Great Recession; Humans; Older people; Public policy; Quality of Life; Retirement; Rural areas; Sex differences; Social factors; Social isolation; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Spain - epidemiology; Statistical analysis; Unemployment; Variables; Europe; Spain; logistic regressions; older people; SHARE; quality of life; Spain; recession
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18042028

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.