SHARE Corona

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

The wave 8 of the SHARE study continued through telephone interviews with the addition of a special “SHARE Corona 1” questionnaire. The survey was completed in early August 2020. At the beginning of the summer of 2021, with the help of the “SHARE Corona 2” questionnaire, the second SHARE Corona survey was conducted, as part of the wave 9 of the SHARE study. In the 26 countries of the European Union, Israel and Switzerland, about 57,000 interviews were collected in the first SHARE Corona survey, and about 47,000 in the second. In Croatia, 2,200 interviews were collected in the first SHARE Corona survey, and about 2,000 in the second. Most of these respondents have been participating in the SHARE project since 2015, ie since the wave 8. Data from the first SHARE Corona survey are available to the scientific community from December 2020, while data from the second SHARE Corona survey will be available in early 2022.

Aim

The aim was to collect data that will allow scientists to examine in-depth how the risk group of the older individuals is coping with the health-related and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19. The achievement of the goal is evidenced by published research in which data from the first SHARE Corona survey were used.

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 first SHARE Corona survey was 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 pandemic and the interruption of the main fieldwork of the 8th wave. These same respondents were also interviewed in the second SHARE Corona survey to cover changes in respondents’ behaviour during a pandemic.

Implementation

Respondents answered the questionnaire by phone for 20-25 minutes. All respondents received detailed information in advance about the SHARE Corona survey, the protection of their data and the incentive to contribute to this survey. Implementation of both SHARE Corona surveys began in early June 2020 and lasted for 2 months in both 2020 and 2021.

Survey questions

Both questionnaires cover questions that are important for different areas of research:

1. Questions about the (physical and mental) health
2. Questions about the corona-related infection
3. Questions about the quality of healthcare
4. Questions about the work
5. Questions about the economic situation
6. Question about social networks

Results

The data collected with these questionnaires 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 is the possibility to measure and interpret differences in a cross-country and a longitudinal dimension. Data from the first SHARE Corona survey are available to the scientific community from December 2020, while data from the second SHARE Corona survey will be available in early 2022.