Page 27 - IDEA Study 3 2015 Duchodova studie

CHAPTER 3: HEALTH AND RETIREMENT This chapter examines the health of the respondents in relation to their retirement and labour market participation, especially with respect to the health potential of those who are retired or not in the labour market despite being both physically and mentally healthy (see Coe and Zamarro (2011)). The SHARE data are a unique source of internationally comparable information about respondents' subjective and objective health status in relation to other activities. Health status is measured in terms of internationally comparable indexes. General health is measured by the number of chronic diseases, functional health by the so- called ADL index (Activity of Daily Living), and cognitive ability by a memory recall test. The graphs show the proportion of healthy individuals in each age category and gender. In the Appendix, we also show graphs for the EURO-D scale of depression and an objective measure of health by grip strength. General Health: Chronic Diseases A measure of general health is the number of common chronic diseases respondents suffered from during the 12 months immediately preceding their SHARE interview (see the Appendix for details). Graph 3.1 shows the age profile of the portion of the population reporting fewer than two chronic diseases. The graphs show that all regions are rather similar in their general health, with the Czech Republic performing very well for men and women under the age of 55. Thereafter, the Nordic countries maintain their general health at a higher level, although Czech men and women have health levels very closely comparable to Western European levels. The oldest women in Northern Europe suffer from far fewer chronic diseases than women of a similar age in the other countries studied. The health index decreases smoothly without any sudden drop around the statutory retirement age. On the contrary, there is a marked improvement in health around or after the statutory retirement age, most likely caused by less physically and mentally demanding activities in the initial years of retirement. It should be noted that mortality and morbidity has substantially improved since 1989 in the Czech Republic and most Eastern European countries. Their convergence to EU levels is likely to continue in the next decades. 25