Introducing the Social Integration Index for Older Europeans: The Role of Gender and Care Regimes

Social integration is a critical factor in health and longevity among older adults, but an instrument for measuring and comparing social integration of older adults across European countries remains absent. In the present study, we investigate the social integration of people aged 50 years and over by adapting an index established by Berkman and Syme (American Journal of Epidemiology, 109(2):186–204, 1979) to the European context. Based on data collected in 2021from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we conducted a multivariate regression analysis to examine the social integration of women and men across care regimes. Our findings suggest that women are less socially integrated than men and that older adults in more ‘familialistic’ regimes tend to be less socially integrated. The gender gap in social integration differs across contexts. Women tend to be less socially integrated in family-oriented care regimes, presumably due to their role as primary caregivers, which can limit their opportunities for social activities outside of familial bonds. Our results highlight the importance of developing context-sensitive policies that promote social integration, particularly among women and older adults in family-oriented care regimes, thus offering a wide spectrum for cross-country comparative research on factors enabling social integration in different population groups in Europe’s ageing societies.