1. SHARE Slovenija Kardeljeva ploščad 17 1000 Ljubljana phone: +386 1 5303 800 fax: +386 1 5303 874 e-mail: info@share.si
BOOK OF THE FIRST RESULTS OF THE 4TH WAVE OF THE SHARE SURVEY IN SLOVENIA
SHARE, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), is an interdisciplinary cross-national panel database of
micro data on health, socio-economic status, social and family networks of more than 123,000 individuals (approximately
293,000 surveys conducted) aged 50+ from 20 European countries (from the 1st to the 6th survey wave) and Israel.
Upon successful completion of the 4th wave of the survey in Slovenia (2011), the Institute for Economic Research invited the
leading Slovene scientists from the field of health care, social care and economics to prepare an insight into the lives of the
older population in Slovenia. A result of mutual co-operation between the University of Ljubljana, the National Institute of
Public Health, and The Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development is the first Slovene interdisciplinary scientific
publication on ageing conditions in Slovenia and on challenges imposed by future social reforms.
Many authors have joined their contributions into three key chapters: health and long-term care, social inclusion, active age-
ing and retirement. Each of the chapters provides an insight into some challenges of the ageing society in Slovenia. Ulti-
mately, the book also provides an insight into the society as a whole, the SHARE respondents, their family life and the public
as a whole.
The book is available free of charge at: http://www.share-slovenija.si/strani/prvi_rezultati_slovenija
SLOVENE SCIENTIEST TOGETHER
FOR A BETTER LIFE IN OLD AGE

2. SHARE Slovenija Kardeljeva ploščad 17 1000 Ljubljana phone: +386 1 5303 800 fax: +386 1 5303 874 e-mail: info@share.si
SHARE Slovenia joined the sur-
vey in the 4th wave in 2011. The first
panel wave for Slovenia was the 5th
wave in 2013. In the 6th wave in
2015, we started collecting biomar-
kers such as dried blood drops. In the
7th wave in 2017, we will look into
the history of lives of our respon-
dents.In 2013, Slovenia joined the
first European Research Infrastructure
Consortium – SHARE ERIC, – which
gives the research a suitable formal
form for a successful research work.
Dr. Boris Majcen, PhD in economics
and Director of the Institute for Eco-
nomic Research of Ljubljana. His rese-
arch work focuses mainly on develop-
ment and application of methodolo-
gical tools for the study of economic
consequences of ageing of the popu-
lation and long-term sustainability of
public finance. He is a member of a
group for the preparation of the Whi-
te Paper, of the working group for
coordinating preparations of go-
vernment expenditure projections,
and member of a network of in-
dependent experts who work in
support of the European Commission
in monitoring social inclusion and
formulation of social policy.
CLEAR MESSAGES TO POLICY MAKERS
We have just begun establishing a
research infrastructure for studying
ageing in Slovenia and yet our first
data provide some important mes-
sages for the health care, social care
and active ageing.
The elderly people in Slovenia are
mainly healthy, eat healthy food but
are overweight and do not consume
enough liquid. More attention
should be paid to mental health and
decline in cognitive abilities after
retirement.
The latter is also reflected in one of
the key challenges of Slovenia –
social inclusion – that is a result of
low income and high cost of hous-
ing. Almost all elderly in Slovenia
own real estates.
Postponed retirement might contrib-
ute to better social inclusion of the
elderly since the actively employed
have higher income and broader
social networks. But the Slovenes
are real champions in early retire-
ment.
Boris Majcen, PhD, Director of the Institute for Economic Research
“The physicists need the CERN research infrastructure to be able to understand particle physics, while the researchers in
the field of sociology need a research infrastructure in the form of programme tools and well-arranged databases.”
SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE FOR BETTER DECISIONS
The chapter on HEALTH AND LONG-TERM CARE (National Institute of
Public Health, University of Ljubljana, Institute for Economic Research)
describes a status of the elderly from the health point of view (general health
status, cognitive functions, mental health, and use of health care services)
and warns of risk behaviour linked to health (smoking, obesity and physical
inactivity) among the elderly. Interestingly, each second elderly person in Slo-
venia is overweight, the elderly are also suicidal, while only each seventh per-
son over the age of 50 is a smoker. Those having higher income and educa-
tion more often use health care services which means that the state will have
to put more effort into providing better availability of medical services for all
the elderly people. A number of healthy years of life is among the lowest in
Europe.
The chapter on SOCIAL INCLUSION (Social Protection Institute of the Republic
of Slovenia, University of Ljubljana, Institute for Economic Research)
provides an insight into socio-economic status of the elderly in Slovenia. The
share of the elderly who live below the poverty line is utterly alarming. More-
over, social exclusion among the elderly in Slovenia is problematic especially
in terms of residence and social networks. Immobility of the elderly in Slove-
nia is high while accommodation expenses exceed one half of a monthly in-
come of the elderly. As far as neighbourliness and inter-generational solida-
rity are concerned, Slovenia rather falls within the southern European coun-
tries, in which the family and family networks play the most important part.
The chapter on ACTIVE AGEING (Institute for Macroeconomic Analysis, Insti-
tute for Economic Research) represents the status of the elderly in the
labour market and characteristics of the Slovene pension scheme. Among the
elderly people in Slovenia there are many civil servants. The level of absence
from work due to illness is very high. The Slovenes expect to retire earlier
than the elderly elsewhere in Europe and this negatively impacts the public
finance scheme.

3. SHARE Slovenija Kardeljeva ploščad 17 1000 Ljubljana phone: +386 1 5303 800 fax: +386 1 5303 874 e-mail: info@share.si
Andrej Srakar, PhD is an expert
assistant in the SHARE Slovenia
project, a scientific assistant at the
Institute of Macroeconomic
Analysis and an assistant professor
at the Faculty of Economics of the
University of Ljubljana. He is a rese-
archer and lecturer in the fields of
cultural economics and the econo-
mics of cultural policy, ageing eco-
nomics, macroeconomics and eco-
nometrics, the author of numerous
publications and presentations
from these fields both in Slovenia
and abroad.
Institute for Economic Research
(IER) is an independent research
organization founded in 1965 and
is a centre of research in the field of
economics of population ageing,
regional development, innovations
and creative industries, social entre-
preneurship, technological develop-
ment centres, economics of educa-
tion and brain drain, ecotechnologi-
es and business consultancy. Our
expert staff creates new knowledge
for an economic, social and susta-
inable development of Slovenia.
SLOVENE SCIENTISTS JOINED FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
The main goal of the SHARE survey is to establish a scientific infrastructure of
data for researchers, on the basis of which they can successfully co-operate
with national politics-planners in the preparation of efficient reforms
University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest higher-school and scienti-
fic research institution in Slovenia founded in 1919. Today, it is attended by
more than 40,000 students and employs more than 5,600 professors, resear-
chers, assistant professors as well as expert and administrative assistants at 23
faculties and three art academies. The University of Ljubljana is ranked among
top 500 universities in the Shanghai, Times and Webometrics ranking of world
universities. It ranks among three per cent of most prominent universities in the
world. The University of Ljubljana is the central and largest educational institu-
tion and at the same time also the central and largest research institution in
Slovenia employing as much as thirty per cent of all registered researchers
(based on the SICRIS database data).
National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) is the central national institution
whose main goal is to study, protect and increase the health level of the population
of the Republic of Slovenia by way of raising public awareness and other preventive
measures. Apart from its central role in the public health activities in Slovenia, NIJZ
also actively participates in international projects that cover various fields of health
and general public health care problems of the population. NIJZ also functions as
an expert level to support decisions made by the state on both the national and
local levels and which have an indirect or a direct impact on health.
Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (IRRSV) was founded
in 1996 and is involved in the design and maintenance of various databases for
social protection services and programmes. We monitor implementation of various
governmental laws and strategic documents and also take care of their IT support
by designing a special system of indices and by collecting and analysing the data.
To contribute to a more efficient decision-making, the Institute provides expert
bases for various governmental measures and advises the Ministry of Labour,
Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.
Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development (UMAR) is an in-
dependent governmental body that is directly accountable to the prime minister.
Main tasks of the UMAR are monitoring, analysing and evaluating current fluctuati-
ons and development in its economic, social and environmental dimension, short-
term and long-term forecasting of national economic aggregates (a forecast is pre-
pared twice a year, in March and in September), preparation of expert bases for
short-term and strategic orientations and measures of the economic and develop-
ment policy, and research work.

4. SHARE Slovenija Kardeljeva ploščad 17 1000 Ljubljana phone: +386 1 5303 800 fax: +386 1 5303 874 e-mail: info@share.si
BOOK EDITORS
Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, PhD is a
senior scientific assistant at the Institu-
te for Economic Research, a researcher
in the field of health care systems, he-
alth insurance and health care finan-
cing, and health care technology ma-
nagement. She is the author of many
publications both in Slovenia and
abroad.
Nada Stropnik, PhD is a researcher
at the Institute for Economic Research
of Ljubljana. Her main fields of resear-
ch are: social inclusion, socio-protective
and family policy, and co-ordination of
working and family obligations. She
has been actively involved in the creati-
on of Slovene policy in these fields.
Since 2010 she has been a Slovene
member of a network of independent
experts who work in support of the
European Commission in monitoring
social inclusion and in creating social
policy (European Social Policy Ne-
twork). She is a (co)author of a sub-
stantial number of studies, articles and
chapters in books, an author and (co)
editor of several scientific books, and a
member of editorial boards of five in-
ternational scientific journals.
Prof. Tine Stanovnik, PhD a
(retired) professor of the Faculty of
Economics of the University of Ljublja-
na. He got a Fulbright grant for
postdoctoral studies at the Institute for
Social Research of the University of
Michigan (Ann Arbor) in the academic
year 1989/90 and at the Drury Univer-
sity (Missouri) in the academic year
1998/1999. His fields of research are
social security economics, welfare eco-
nomics, and public finance. He was
also an expert of the International La-
bour Organisation (from 2000 to
2013), the World Bank (1990) and the
International Monetary Fund (2008).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial: Boris Majcen
Background and methodological aspects of the SHARE survey: Saša
Mašič
I. Introduction to the chapter »Health and long-term care«: Valentina
Prevolnik Rupel
1. The health status of the elderly: a comparison of self-reported health status
and objective indicators: Andrej Srakar
2. Cognitive abilities of older people: Vladimir Lavrač, Andrej Srakar
3. The desire for death, and the various aspects of suicide among older adults
in Slovenia: Saška Roškar
4. Depression among the elderly: Helena Jeriček Klanšček
5. Analysis of the use of health care services by the elderly Slovenians: the first
results of the fourth wave of the SHARE survey: Rok Hren, Valentina
Prevolnik Rupel, Andrej Srakar
6. Analysis of out-of-pocket expenses for health care: results of the fourth
wave of the SHARE survey: Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, Rok Hren, Andrej
Srakar
7. Tobacco smoking among the Slovenian population aged 50 years and over:
Helena Koprivnikar
8. Eating habits to strengthen health among older adults: Matej Gregorič,
Vida Fajdiga Turk, Urška Blaznik
9. Nutritional status of older adults: The supply of fluids and proteins: Urška
Blaznik, Matej Gregorič, Vida Fajdiga Turk
10.Excessive eating and obesity among older adults Vida Fajdiga Turk, Matej
Gregorič, Urška Blaznik
11.Physical (in)activity of older people in Slovenia: Renata Slabe Erker, Tjaša
Bartolj
12.Measures of disability as a basis for assessing the healthy life years and
need for long-term care: Eva Zver, Andrej Srakar
II. Introduction to the chapter “Social Inclusion”: Nada Stropnik
1. The risk of relative poverty and subjective perception of poverty among
population aged 50 years and over: Nada Stropnik, Andrej Srakar
2. Housing conditions and mobility of elderly population - Slovenia in compar-
ative perspective: Srna Mandič
3. How can older people adjust their housing consumption to their falling
income: Ivo Lavrač
4. Social exclusion: a comparison of Slovenia with other European countries:
Maša Filipovič Hrast, Andrej Srakar
5. Intergenerational solidarity in Slovenia: Valentina Hlebec, Maša Filipovič
Hrast
6. Neighbourhood relations: comparison of Slovenia with other European
countries: Maša Filipovič Hrast
7. Informal caregivers: who conducts informal care, to what extent and for
whom: Mateja Nagode, Andrej Srakar
III. Introduction to the chapter “Active Aging and Retirement”: Tine
Stanovnik
1. Features of employment of older employees in SHARE countries and Slove-
nia: Andrej Srakar, Boris Majcen
2. Sick leave of older employees: SHARE countries and Slovenia: Boris Majcen,
Andrej Srakar
3. Self-employed and precarious workers in the SHARE countries: some basic