{"title":"The social life and attitudes of 80 year olds in Iceland and Sweden - A comparison of two city populations","authors":"G. Samuelsson, T. Svensson, J. Jónsson","doi":"10.2190/85M2-443K-H211-7027","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The 80+ Studies are collecting longitudinal data regarding medical, psychological, and sociological aspects of 80-year-old people in Lund, Sweden and Reykjavik, Iceland. Methods and Samples: The research design and instruments were identical at the two cites. The number of participants was 139 and 151 respectively. Results: The Icelandic sample had a lower level of educational attainment, a higher ratio with working class back-ground, a higher retirement age, a higher level of single living participants, and more often received home health care. They also had fewer close friends, provided a lower level of support to their children, and, to a lower extent, thought their income met their needs. The Swedish participants reported a higher divorce rate, a lower number of children, siblings, and grandchildren, a higher level of satisfaction with family contacts, and a higher level of loneliness. Summary: Many significant differences concerning demographic and social network variables were found between the two samples. Possible macro-social and cultural explanations of the differences are discussed.","PeriodicalId":87473,"journal":{"name":"Hallym international journal of aging : HIJA","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2005-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Hallym international journal of aging : HIJA","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2190/85M2-443K-H211-7027","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
The 80+ Studies are collecting longitudinal data regarding medical, psychological, and sociological aspects of 80-year-old people in Lund, Sweden and Reykjavik, Iceland. Methods and Samples: The research design and instruments were identical at the two cites. The number of participants was 139 and 151 respectively. Results: The Icelandic sample had a lower level of educational attainment, a higher ratio with working class back-ground, a higher retirement age, a higher level of single living participants, and more often received home health care. They also had fewer close friends, provided a lower level of support to their children, and, to a lower extent, thought their income met their needs. The Swedish participants reported a higher divorce rate, a lower number of children, siblings, and grandchildren, a higher level of satisfaction with family contacts, and a higher level of loneliness. Summary: Many significant differences concerning demographic and social network variables were found between the two samples. Possible macro-social and cultural explanations of the differences are discussed.