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SHARE’s contribution to research about the social, health and economic impact of COVID-19

Fieldwork of Wave 8 of the SHARE study resumed with telephone administrated interviews (CATI) using a special SHARE Corona questionnaire. The survey was completed in early August 2020. Over 54,000 interviews were collected in 26 EU countries, Israel and Switzerland. In Croatia, 2,200 interviews were collected among respondents who have been involved in the SHARE project since 2015, i.e. since the sixth SHARE wave. The data from the research will be available to the scientific community in early autumn 2020 (link to the data page).

Aim

The data collected with this questionnaire will allow examining in-depth how the risk group of the older individuals is coping with the health-related and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. The great advantage of these data will be the possibility to measure and interpret differences in a cross-country and a longitudinal dimension.

Context

SHARE’s embeddedness in a worldwide network of harmonized ageing surveys permits European and even worldwide comparisons of how well the healthcare and social systems have responded to the pandemic and which lessons should be drawn for the future. Moreover, the use of data from previous waves allows comparing this crisis’ socioeconomic impact with previous hardships, for example the economic crisis in 2008.

Respondents

The survey will be conducted on a random sample of respondents from the SHARE panel (about 2,500 people aged 50+). These are respondents who participated in the SHARE study in the 6th and/or 7th wave (2015 and 2017) as well as those who were interviewed in the 8th wave by 15 March 2020, i.e. until the introduction of protection measures from the coronavirus epidemic and the interruption of the main fieldwork of the 8th wave.

Implementation

Respondents will answer the questionnaire by phone for 20-25 minutes. All respondents will receive detailed information in advance about the SHARE Corona survey, the protection of their data and the incentive to contribute to this survey. Implementation begins in early June 2020 and will last for 2 months. The first results are expected in mid-August 2020.

Survey questions

The questionnaire covers different topics:

1. Questions about the epidemic and health
2. Questions about mental health
3.  Questions about the economic situation
4. Questions about social networks
5. Questions about the health system

Results

The first results are expected in early autumn of 2020. The data collected with this questionnaire will allow examining in-depth how the risk group of the older individuals is coping with the health-related and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. The great advantage of these data will be the possibility to measure and interpret differences in a cross-country and a longitudinal dimension.