Exposing the Value of Receiving and Giving Help Across 12 European Countries: A Longitudinal Analysis of Self-Perceived Health

The act of receiving and giving help is commonly expected to improve older people’s health. In this article, this expectation is explored through a longitudinal analysis of a representative sample of 29,995 respondents aged 59 to 100 from 12 European countries documented in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for the period 2011 to 2022. An unordered correlated random-effects Mundlak (CRE), an ordered fixed-effects logistic (FEO), as well as an ordered random-effects Mundlak logistic panel estimator (REO), all with longitudinal calibrated weights, are used to estimate the relationship between self-perceived health and receiving and giving help. Additionally, the estimators are repeated for testing the robustness of the findings across the five available imputed SHARE datasets. The study supports the positive impact on health status of income, doing activities and being satisfied with life, as well as the negative impact of age, having limitations and being permanently sick. The Danish older people report the best health status, while the Swedish, Belgian, and Dutch jointly hold the second-best health status. Moreover, the value of a helping hand is revealed. Receiving help implies a 24.8 per cent increase in the odds of reporting worse health, yet, when combined with giving help, the latter lowers to 7.7 per cent. Overall, the study confirms the positive effect of receiving and giving help. This suggests that initiating a stimulus for recipients of help to engage in giving help is an opportunity to improve the self-perception of health among older people in Europe.