What is Happening with Quality of Life Among the Oldest People in Southern European Countries? An Empirical Approach Based on the SHARE Data

Abstract

Population aging in developed countries has created new challenges to improve the well-being of individuals at diferent age cohorts. This issue is especially signifcant for Southern European countries, were aging societies have worse health and less socioeconomic resources. The aim of this study is to contribute to this body of literature and to estimate the efect of aging on quality of life of oldest people. This paper uses the latest available data (6th wave) from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Specifcally, robust ordinary least squares and multilevel regressions are employed to analyse the efects of socioeconomic, health, and community factors on quality of life among the oldest population for Southern European countries. Our fndings confrm the signifcance of several factors on life satisfaction among the oldest population in this group of countries. Moreover, we show that the determinants which are correlated with quality of life include predisposing, health, geographic area and social isolation factors.