EUROPEAN PAPERS ON THE NEW WELFARE

4. Main Results

Table 1 shows the percentage of people declaring social and family contacts with/without disabilities, for men and women aged 55 and over and in general population (aged 15 and over).
Social participation with/without disabilities in old ages must be interpreted with reference to the general population pattern: during the normal life span individuals form social relationships (with friends, family, colleagues, etc.) especially during active life. With age the number of social interaction decreases because of death of peers and of decreased mobility. At the same time individuals turn more and more to the family: the number and the availability of their relatives become a crucial factor in their social lives. Family relations decrease with age because of death of relatives, especially for people who have remained single, but seems to be not influenced by health status. On the contrary, dependency influences the association life: disabled people show a limited participation in association and disparity growth with age.

Table 1: Health and social participation (percentages)

Source: HID-Ménage 1999 Survey.

However, the prevalence of social and family contacts with/without disabilities could be influenced by individual characteristics such as age, gender, social position etc. A logistic regression model helps to show the separate impact of individual characteristics on social participation and health.
As could be expected, health impedes social participation and isolation increases with age. This could be linked in part to a generational effect (younger generations show greater social participation), but the age effect does not have to be excluded. Gender shows an ambiguous effect with reference to different activities. On the contrary, marital life and professional status seems to have a great effect on social participation (see tables 2 and 3).
From the opposite point of view, the probability to move from disability free to a disabled situation is greater for men and it increases with age. Physical health influence mental health transition, but the analysis also shows the effect of other covariates (table 4 and 5): generally, the existence of a family and social environment with which individual interact seems to be a strong factor in protecting health, especially mental health. Interests in activities, hobbies, or a life-long learning also have a positive influence on mental health.

5. Conclusions… or a New Starting Point?

With age job and family charges are often replaced with other activities (associations, hobbies, social engagement etc.), which become the most important way to participate in social life.
The analysis brought to light links between activity (in the sense of participation in life) and physical and psychological well being at older ages. Following this line of reasoning, the discussion on activity and participation in older ages should move forward, bearing in mind that the final objective must be political; the idea that emerges concerns first of all the active ageing policies, with the crucial role of social participation and intergenerational integration.

References
Cagiano de Azevedo, R (2005): “Vieillissement et dé-vieillissement de la population en Europe”, contribution au colloque Vieillissement et territoire à l’horizon 2030, Université Paris La Sorbonne, 13-15 septembre, Paris.

Désesquelles, A. (2002): “La santé comme facteur d’exclusion: un essai de mesure”, Gérontologie et Société, n. 102, septembre.

Lièvre, A. and Brouard, N. (2003): “The estimation of health expectancies from cross-longitudinal surveys”, Mathematical Population Studies, n. 10, p. 211-248.

Robine, J.M. et Jagger, C. (2004): “Allongement de la vie et état de santé de la population”, Population et Société, Volume VI, Editions de l’INED, p. 51-84.

World Health Organisation (2001): Classification internationale du fonctionnement, du handicap et de la santé, World Health Organisation, Geneva.
Table 2 an 3: Logistic regression on variables:

Table 4 and 5: Logistic regression on:

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