Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
BMC Geriatr. 2020 Oct 31;20(1):436. doi: 10.1186/s12877-020-01785-4.
Providing support to others has been shown to be beneficial to older adults. As people age, their health and social relationships change. These changes may also relate to changes in social support provision. We examined the trajectory of instrumental support provision by older people in three European regions throughout 11 years of follow-up. We then examined the extent to which age at baseline, sex, and region (representing welfare state regime) influenced the variations in the trajectory.
Data collected from 8354 respondents who had completed at least waves 1 and 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) was analysed. Instrumental support provision was determined from asking a single question regarding whether the respondent provided help personally for people outside their household. Region, sex, and age at baseline were the main predictors tested. We used growth modelling to address the aims of this study.
The northern European region (Sweden and Denmark) had the highest odds ratio of instrumental support provision. The likelihood of being involved in providing instrumental support decreased by 8% annually (OR: 0.916, 95%CI: 0.893,0.940) over the 11 years of follow-up. Older respondents were less likely to provide instrumental support and their trajectories declined faster than those of the younger respondents. Sex difference in instrumental support provision was more apparent among younger-older people in the southern European region.
Older European adults are an important source of instrumental support, especially for their families. The probability of instrumental support provision by European older adults declines over time. Age, sex, and welfare state regime predict this trajectory.
向他人提供支持已被证明对老年人有益。随着人们年龄的增长，他们的健康和社会关系会发生变化。这些变化也可能与社会支持提供的变化有关。我们考察了 3 个欧洲地区的老年人在 11 年的随访期间提供工具性支持的轨迹。然后，我们考察了基线年龄、性别和地区（代表福利国家制度）对轨迹变化的影响程度。
对至少完成了欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查（SHARE）第 1 波和第 6 波的 8354 名受访者的数据进行了分析。工具性支持的提供是通过询问一个关于受访者是否亲自为家庭以外的人提供帮助的问题来确定的。地区、性别和基线年龄是主要的预测因素。我们使用增长模型来解决本研究的目标。
北欧地区（瑞典和丹麦）提供工具性支持的可能性最高。在 11 年的随访期间，参与提供工具性支持的可能性每年下降 8%（OR：0.916，95%CI：0.893，0.940）。年龄较大的受访者不太可能提供工具性支持，他们的轨迹比年龄较小的受访者下降得更快。在南欧地区，年轻老年人的性别差异在工具性支持的提供上更为明显。
欧洲老年人是工具性支持的重要来源，特别是对他们的家庭而言。欧洲老年人口提供工具性支持的概率随着时间的推移而下降。年龄、性别和福利国家制度预测了这一轨迹。
