title: Demographic and socioeconomic inequalities for self-rated health and happiness in elderly: the situation for Turkey regarding World Values Survey between 1990 and 2013.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To define the socioeconomic and demographic determinants for self-rated health and happiness for Turkish elderly (≥60) using the World Values Survey (WVS) database.
  
  
  METHODS
  WVS data for Turkey covering 23 years (1990-2013) with five separate cross-sections (1990, 1996, 2001, 2007, 2013) were pooled for analysis (n=870). Dependent variables were self-rated health (SRH) and perception of happiness.Their relation with age, sex, number of children, marital status, income, education, employment status and class perception were evaluated. Chi-square and logistic regression analysis were used. Regression coefficients and their standard errors were derived to calculate odds ratios.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age was 66.96±5.78 (60-91), 58.16% were male and 76.32% were married. The majority (61.10%) was at lowest income level and 80.60% had education attainment at primary level or below. Very happy/quite happy were 81.77% while only 46.59% perceived their health as very good/good. The crisis year (2001) increased the risk of bad self-rated health 4.4 times, being a women 2.0 times, while being a widow had a 2.3-fold, low-income 3.0-fold effect. The odds for unhappy status was increased 4.3 times at low-income levels and 8.4 times for the divorced/separate living partners. Happiness state improved after crisis period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SRH and happiness of Turkish elderly bare demographic and socioeconomic inequalities. The inexistence of a partner, being a women, low-income level and major threats for it, like economic crisis, are important drivers for elderly health and happiness. To improve well-being of elderly, better social policies for income is essential and at economic crisis times, support policies should be prioritized for vulnerable groups, including elderly.
authors.affiliation: Ege University, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Bornova, Izmir 35100, Turkey. Electronic address: isil.ergin@ege.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Isil
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ergin
authors.affiliation: Ege University, School of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Bornova, Izmir 35100, Turkey. Electronic address: aliye.mandiracioglu@ege.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Aliye
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mandiracioglu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011203:Poverty; D011788:Quality of Life; D057566:Self Report; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Elderly; Happiness; Self-rated health; Socioeconomic determinants; Socioeconomic inequalities