Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Building Evidence for Active Ageing Policies pp 313–341Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

How Relevant is Active Ageing? Evidence from Portugal

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 872 Accesses

Abstract

Europe faces many challenges arising from the demographic change, particularly in what concerns the healthcare services and social security systems. Policymakers need to improve the active ageing process, fostering the participation in the labour market, society and economy, as well as reducing social isolation at the latest stages of life. How can policy decision-makers observe a subject concept such as Active Ageing? Using data from the AAL4ALL final users’ survey, we propose an individual measure of active ageing in Portugal following the European commission Active Ageing Index, built at the country level. The analysis of this index shows that government policy should focus on measures to prevent physical activity complications and develop further the provision and promotion of social services and activities.

We benefited from the collaboration of Comfort Keepers, who provided the data for the current research project. All opinions are our own.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Notes

  1. 1.

    Zaidi et al. (2013).

  2. 2.

    Simões (2012).

  3. 3.

    Here measured by the Active Ageing Index and self-assessed health indicator, respectively.

  4. 4.

    According to \( f{\left({x}_i\right)}_N=\frac{f\left({x}_i\right)-\min \left(f\left({x}_i\right)\right)}{\max \left(f\left({x}_i\right)\right)-\min \kern0.28em \left(f\left({x}_i\right)\right)} \)

  5. 5.

    A first attempt was made only taking into account subjects with the maximum level of social activity and participation in recreational activities. However, only 105 of the retired subjects fulfil these requirements, and the different approach had no impact on the estimation exercise.

  6. 6.

    None of the explanatory variables the variables used to construct the index are included in the estimation.

  7. 7.

    For further details on the econometric models specifications, see Stock and Watson (2003).

  8. 8.

    See Figs. 15.5 and 15.6 in Annex 2.

  9. 9.

    See Fig. 15.7 in Annex 2.

  10. 10.

    In our survey, current health status corresponds to being either healthy, in recovery, having a chronic or an acute disease.

  11. 11.

    See also Annex 1 for variables description.

  12. 12.

    Tables 15.8–15.10 in Annex 4.

  13. 13.

    Table 15.11 in Annex 4.

References

  • Atherton, K., & Power, C. (2007). Health inequalities with the National Statistics-Socioeconomic classification: Disease risk factors and health in the 1958 British birth cohort. The European Journal of Public Health, 17(5), 486–491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, S., Manor, O., & Power, C. (1999). Social inequalities in health: Are there gender differences? Social Science & Medicine, 48(1), 49–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mensah, F., & Hobcraft, J. (2008). Childhood deprivation, health and development: Associations with adult health in the 1958 and 1970 British prospective birth cohort studies. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 62(7), 599–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paúl, C., Ribeiro, O., & Teixeira, L. (2012). Active ageing: An empirical approach to the WHO model. Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research, 2012, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pfarr, C., Schmid, A., & Schneider, U. (2012). Reporting heterogeneity in self-assessed health among elderly Europeans. Health Economics Review, 2(1), 21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simões, R. (2012). Analysis of the survey to potential AAL users (seniors and pre-seniors). Universidade do Minho.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tareque, M., Hoque, N., Islam, T., Kawahara, K., & Sugawa, M. (2013). Relationships between the Active Aging Index and disability-free life expectancy: A case study in the Rajshahi District of Bangladesh. Canadian Journal on Aging, 32(4), 417–432.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (2002). Active ageing—A policy framework. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaidi, A., & Stanton, D. (2015). ‘Active ageing index 2014: analytical report’, report produced at the Centre for Research on ageing, University of Southampton, under contract with UNECE (Geneva), co-funded by European Commission, Brussels, available at: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/sharepoint/groupsite/Administration/SitePublisher-document-store/Documents/aai_report.pdf.

  • Zaidi, A., Gasior, K., Hofmarcher, M. M., Lelkes, O., Marin, B., Rodrigues, R., Schmidt, A., Vanhuysse, P., & Zolyomi, E. (2013). Active Ageing Index 2012. Concept, methodology, and final results. Research memorandum/methodology report. European Centre Vienna, March 2013. Retrieved from www.euro.centre.org/data/aai/1253897823_70974.pdf

  • Zasimova, L., & Sheluntcova, M. (2014). Measuring active aging for government policy planning: A case of Russia. SSRN Electronic Journal.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sara Valente de Almeida & Pedro Pita Barros

Authors
  1. Sara Valente de Almeida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pedro Pita Barros
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Asghar Zaidi

  2. University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Sarah Harper

  3. University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Kenneth Howse

  4. INRCA National Institute of Health and Science on Aging, Ancona, Italy

    Giovanni Lamura

  5. Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Kraków, Poland

    Jolanta Perek-Białas

Appendices

Annex 1

Table 15.6 Variables description—Active Ageing Indexa,b
Full size table

Annex 2

Fig. 15.5
figure 5

Histogram Active Ageing Index b (AAI b)

Full size image
Fig. 15.6
figure 6

Histogram Active Ageing Index by age group (AAI b)

Full size image
Fig. 15.7
figure 7

Active ageing domains, by age groups and sex

Full size image

Annex 3

Table 15.7 Descriptive statistics (before normalization)
Full size table

Annex 4

Table 15.8 Factors associated with the AAI a and AAI b (OLS estimation)
Full size table
Table 15.9 Factors associated with the AAI a and AAI b (OLS estimation)
Full size table
Table 15.10 Factors associated with the AAI a and AAI b (OLS estimation)
Full size table
Table 15.11 Factors associated with the AAI a and AAI b (OLS estimation)
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

de Almeida, S.V., Barros, P.P. (2018). How Relevant is Active Ageing? Evidence from Portugal. In: Zaidi, A., Harper, S., Howse, K., Lamura, G., Perek-Białas, J. (eds) Building Evidence for Active Ageing Policies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6017-5_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6017-5_15

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6016-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6017-5

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation