HOUSING HISTORIES OVER THE LIFE COURSE AND HEALTH AT OLDER AGES: RESULTS FROM SHARE

Studies have linked home ownership with health at older ages, but few studies have summarized entire housing histories and tested their links to health at older ages. This paper uses residential life history data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with annual housing information from age 15 up until age 60 (renting or owning in a rural or urban region) for more than 10,000 older men and women. We use sequence analyses to identify types of previous housing histories and investigate their links to health functioning (physical, affective and cognitive functioning). Findings suggest that the positive association between home ownership and health is restricted to urban regions, and that it is more pronounced for individuals who acquired a home after an episode of renting. We discuss potential explanations, specifically, the role of housing histories for later socioeconomic circumstances.