Authors

• Moisio, Pasi (National Institute for Health and Welfare)

Keywords

activities of daily living, care of the elderly, elderly, family policy, health, health policy, health services, home help, housing for the elderly, informal care, living conditions, quality of life, satisfaction, social networks, social services, social welfare, welfare policy, well-being (health)

Abstract

Welfare and Services in Finland is a survey that combines telephone and face-to-face interviews, postal surveys and register data. The aim of the study is to offer up-to-date, reliable and extensive research data on Finnish welfare and the use of welfare services.

This dataset contains face-to-face survey aimed at the elderly. Main topics included housing, economic circumstances, health and health services, need for care and assistance, informal care, social networks, and quality of life.

Relating to housing, questions charted housing tenure, number of rooms, floor area, plans of moving to some other housing, and the best housing alternative for elderly people who require care and assistance. Some questions studied the respondents' economic circumstances, for example, savings and ability to pay for food, medicine etc. They were also asked whether different services were close enough to their home (e.g. grocery shop, bank).

Relating to health and health services, questions were asked about health status, limiting long-term illnesses or disabilities and their impact on daily life, exercise habits, alcohol consumption, and visits to a doctor, nurse or hospital in the previous 12 months. Further questions probed where the respondents would primarily try to get a doctor's appointment during daytime, whether they had been in hospital as an inpatient in the previous 12 months, and whether they had received sufficient care for health problems. Perceptions of the quality of public and private health services were surveyed.

Need for care and assistance was charted by asking about managing with daily activities without help, help received for different activities, person or organisation that helped the respondents the most, services used in the previous 12 months and sufficiency of the services, financial problems caused by service fees, and person or organisation from whom the respondents would ask information regarding health and available services. Further questions studied whether the respondents had been evaluated in terms of service needs (by municipal authorities), whether informal care agreement had been made on caring for the respondents, whether the respondents had not received the assistance they had needed in the previous 12 months, and whether they trusted they would receive assistance, support and services should they need them. Views on the quality of public and private social services were surveyed.

Questions concerning informal care studied whether the respondents assisted an aged, disabled or sick friend or relative, whether they were the primary caregiver of the person they cared for, how often they helped this person, how satisfied they were with public and private services the person they helped had received, and whether they had made an informal care agreement with the municipality. Questions related to social networks investigated contact with relatives, feelings on loneliness, loss of interest towards things that were previously pleasing, and financial and physical abuse suffered in the previous 12 months.

Finally, perceptions of quality of life were charted as well as satisfaction with own health, experiences of physical pain, enjoyment of life, sense of significance, ability to focus on things, sense of security or insecurity in daily life, healthiness of physical environment, ability to do things (in terms of, for instance, money and energy), ability to move, satisfaction with various things in life (e.g. quality of sleep), and negative feelings.

Background variables included, among others, the household size, type of municipality of residence, region of residence, hospital district, and disposable income of the household as well as the respondent's year of retirement, latest occupation, gender, marital status, age group, and level of education (3-level ISCED classification).