How We Fall Apart: Similarities of Human Aging in 10 European Countries

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may January 2017Abstract. We analyze human aging, understood as health deficit accumulation, for a panel of European individuals. For that purpose, we use four waves of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE dataset) and construct a health deficit index. Results from log-linear regressions suggest that, on average, elderly European men and women develop about 2.5 percent more health deficits from one birthday to the next. In non-linear regression (akin to the Gompertz-Makeham model), however, we find much greater rates of aging and large differences between men and women as well as between countries. Interestingly, these differences follow a particular regularity (akin to the compensation effect of mortality). They suggest an age at which average health deficits converge for men and women and across countries.

On the Anatomy of Medical Progress Within an Overlapping Generations Economy

“…5. Using (54) together with (56) we can calculate the life-cycle allocation for consumption, c a, t 0 + a , depending on the allocation for health expenditures, h(a, t 0 + a) , ∀a ∈ [0, ] and on the set of prices w t 0 + a , r(t 0 + a), p H t 0 + a over the interval t 0 , t 0 + . Vice versa, the allocation of health expenditures can be calculated from the allocation of consumption and the macroeconomic prices.…”

“…Indeed, (2) not only describes the mortality process, but also proxies for the gradual decline in health over the life-course, as is documented by the gradual accumulation of health deficits (e.g. Rockwood and Mitnitski 2007;Abeliansky and Strulik 2018). With our focus being on an individual representing a whole cohort, it is plausible to assume that the consumption of health care slows down the decline in health but cannot reverse it.…”

Aging in the USA: similarities and disparities across time and space

“…Another reason for the popularity of the frailty index, which has been used by now in hundreds of studies in gerontology and medical science, is that it can be easily compared across samples, datasets, and populations 5 . In the Discussion section we compare our results for Americans with those for Canadians 2,4 and Europeans from 14 different countries 22,23 .…”

Aging in the USA: Similarities and Disparities Across Time and Space

“…and Rockwood, 2016) and faster than Europeans from 14 different countries Strulik, 2018, 2019). Results from non-linear regressions suggest that lifespan is shorter for Americans than for Europeans (97 vs. 102 years; Abeliansky and Strulik, 2018). We also find that progress in health deficit reduction advances at a lower rate for Americans than for Europeans (0.9-1.0 percent per year of birth vs. 1.4-1.5 percent per year of birth, Abeliansky and Strulik, 2019).…”