Motel-Klingebiel Andreas, von Kondratowitz Hans-Joachim, Tesch-Römer Clemens
German Centre for Gerontology, Manfred-von-Richthofen-Strasse 2, 12101 Berlin, Germany.
Eur J Ageing. 2004 Dec;1(1):6-14. doi: 10.1007/s10433-004-0001-6. Epub 2004 Nov 6.
This paper analyses quality of life and inequality in old age in an international comparative and a life course perspective. Quality of life is seen as an outcome of unequal chances in life. We distinguish between overall and domain specific expressions of quality of life which allows us to analyse the determinants of overall quality of life and their development over the life course. The data presented come from the research project "OASIS - Old Age and Autonomy: The Role of Service Systems and Intergenerational Family Solidarity". This data set is based on an age stratified random sample of the urban population (25-102 years) in Norway, England, Germany, Spain, and Israel (n=6,106). With advancing age, there are decreasing mean levels and increasing variation of quality of life. With age, the impact of physical health on overall quality of life increases, while the predictive power of other domains decreases. The results support the hypothesis of differentiation as well as the age-dependency hypothesis. For both these both aspects, international comparisons show similar results in different societies. These uniform age tendencies in modern European societies point to a limited importance of societal embeddedness and support the interpretation of age group differences as being life course effects.
本文从国际比较和生命历程的视角分析了老年人的生活质量与不平等问题。生活质量被视为生活中机会不平等的结果。我们区分了生活质量的总体表达和特定领域表达，这使我们能够分析总体生活质量的决定因素及其在生命历程中的发展。所呈现的数据来自“绿洲——老年与自主性：服务系统和代际家庭团结的作用”研究项目。该数据集基于挪威、英格兰、德国、西班牙和以色列城市人口（25 - 102岁）的年龄分层随机样本（n = 6106）。随着年龄的增长，生活质量的平均水平下降，差异增加。随着年龄增长，身体健康对总体生活质量的影响增加，而其他领域的预测能力下降。结果支持了分化假说以及年龄依赖性假说。对于这两个方面，国际比较在不同社会中显示出相似的结果。现代欧洲社会中这些一致的年龄趋势表明社会嵌入性的重要性有限，并支持将年龄组差异解释为生命历程效应。
