Despite the growing interest in studying factors affecting subjective well-being of older adults, little research has been conducted on vast territory of Siberia (Russia) with large population. To address this lack of evidence, we explored the relationship between subjective well-being and social aspects (social and emotional support, social network, and social activities), living conditions (standards of living and residence area), self-reported health, and demographic characteristics in older adults living in Tomsk Region, Siberia. Subjective well-being was measured by life satisfaction and happiness (each measured with one 11-point question). Sample included 489 community-dwelling respondents, aged 65 or older. We found that mean life satisfaction and happiness reported by our respondents were lower than those of European countries. Higher quality of social interaction, better standards of living, and being satisfied with own health were associated with higher life satisfaction and happiness. This study provides original data on a region barely investigated and suggests that Siberian older adults receive strong benefits from social support and from social network and that similar factors are related to subjective well-being both in Siberian and Eastern European older adults. Future studies should further explore the relationship between different kinds of social support (e.g., psychological vs. material support) and subjective well-being in different Siberian ethnic groups or regions.
This research paper analyzes the existing forms of statistical surveys and indicators in Russia which could be associated with estimating the objective component of well-being of the elderly population. Also, it focused on identifying the possible statistics time depth for indicators evaluation in the study area. The article determines the scope of objective indicators in the Russian statistics and draws a profile on older people's quality of life in the Tomsk region for the period 2011-2014 on the bases of regional statistical data.
Although Russia manifests some dynamics in its national policy on ageing, it still lacks comprehensive tools for the older generation wellbeing assessment both on national and regional levels. This research work is an ongoing project aimed at the development of the composite index (composite indicator) to assess the elderly population wellbeing in Russia for cross-regional comparison to equip Russian policy-makers with an essential tool and relevant reliable data to facilitate the decision-making and policy design at national, regional and local levels. The paper discusses the possibility of selecting relevant data from the pool of the official state statistics indicators to assess the elderly generation's wellbeing in 85 regions of the Russian Federation by four index domains (economic, social, health and regional environment dimensions). Due to a high geographical and territorial heterogeneity, this index can be advised to be adopted as a potential tool to monitor wellbeing across Russian regions with the focus on policy development for macro-regions. This grouping of regions can minimize transaction costs of bargaining on behalf of the 85 regions while developing national policies and strategies. The paper employs the Russian Elderly Wellbeing Index (REWI) to compare calculation results for 2014 and 2016 as well as addresses the issue of elderly population wellbeing analysis on the meso level in the context of federal districts. The authors run cluster analysis for the REWI indicators to compare clusters of Russian regions and federal districts.
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