Using the SHARE Scales and Multi-Factor Indicators Manual – a resource for data analysis

The SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) project is an European study that provides an in-depth insight into the processes of population ageing and the factors influencing them, covering the domains of health, economics, demography, and social support. Within this international project, more than 616,000 interviews have already been conducted, involving respondents from 28 countries.

SHARE data are used across a wide range of research fields – from public health and social policy to economics and demography. One of the key advantages of the SHARE study is its methodological consistency and the ability to analyse changes over time, as the same participants are followed up in multiple survey waves. This longitudinal design allows researchers to track individual-level changes and to study dynamics in health, demographic, economic, and other domains.

The SHARE questionnaire includes psychological, social, and health-related measurement scales, such as the Euro-D scale for assessing the frequency and intensity of depressive symptoms, indicators of physical health and functional ability, including the Global Activity Limitations Index (GALI), Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), and the CASP-12 scale for measuring quality of life and others. These scales are widely used in other longitudinal studies, such as ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing) and TILDA (The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing) and others, thereby ensuring data comparability not only among SHARE member countries but also across related international research initiatives.

To facilitate data use and enhance research efficiency, the SHARE team has developed a Manual on Scales and Multi-Factor Indicators, and the SHARE database already includes pre-calculated results for numerous scales. This means that researchers do not need to compute the scale values themselves – the data are prepared and ready for analysis, following harmonised methodological standards. The inclusion of pre-calculated scale results significantly simplifies data handling, reduces the risk of manual calculation errors, and increases the reliability of analytical results.

Information on the full list of scales used in SHARE, their constituent variables, and calculation methods is available here.

Access to SHARE data for scientific research is provided free of charge to registered users, in accordance with EU and national data protection laws and the publicly available terms of use. More information is available here.

Additional information on how to become a registered SHARE data user can be found here.

You can follow the latest news and updates about the project on the SHARE Latvia Facebook page.

Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) participates in the project “RSU Participation in the Horizon Europe Programme” (Project No. 1.1.1.5/3/25/I/014), one of the goals of which is to inform and educate researchers about opportunities to use SHARE data in research.