Esteban Calvo

Universidad Mayor · Society and Health Research Center

Objectives: This study aims to examine age differences in the intensity of chronic pain among middle-aged and older adults, where intensity is measured on a scale differentiating between chronic pain that is often troubling and likely requires intervention versus more endurable sensations. We aim to explore whether individual health and national g...

Backgrounds: The prevalence of loneliness increases among older adults, varies across countries, and is related to within-country socioeconomic, psychosocial, and health factors. The 2000-2019 pooled prevalence of loneliness among adults 60 years and older went from 5.2% in Northern Europe to 24% in Eastern Europe, while in the US was 56% in 2012....

Background: Despite its enormous health and social burden, there are limited published studies describing the epidemiology of violent deaths in Chile. We described violent mortality rate trends in Chile between 2001 and 2018, its current spatial distribution and ecological level correlates. Methods: A population-based study using publicly access...

Las cuarentenas derivadas de la pandemia generaron efectos en la salud mental de las personas, así como también nuevas formas de acceder al consumo de alcohol en la comodidad de nuestros hogares. De esto y más hablé recientemente en Radio Agricultura, en donde comentó un estudio hecho por la Universidad de Stanford acerca de consumo excesivo de al...

🚭 Hoy conmemoramos el Día Mundial sin Tabaco. ¿Sabías que, según datos de The World Bank, en los últimos 20 años la prevalencia de consumo de tabaco ha disminuido alrededor del mundo? 🛑 Sin embargo, aún hay mucho trabajo por hacer, ya que esta sustancia mata a más de 8 millones de personas al año, según datos de la World Health Organization. #wor...

🏳️‍🌈 Hoy conmemoramos el Día Internacional contra la Homofobia, la Transfobia y la Bifobia. En nuestro país, la visión acerca de este tema ha ido cambiando, tal como se ve en el gráfico. De hecho, las personas más jóvenes están más de acuerdo que las personas mayores en que las parejas homosexuales son tan buenos padres como otras parejas, según l...

Según datos de la encuesta World Values Survey (WVS), las y los chilenos han ido variando su visión acerca de la importancia del tiempo libre, siendo en la actualidad mucho más relevante que años atrás. En tu caso, ¿crees que es relevante el tiempo libre? ¿te gustaría que disminuyeran las horas que trabajamos semanalmente?

En una nueva conmemoración del Día Mundial de la Salud, queremos saber ¿cómo perciben las y los chilenos su salud? En el gráfico se ve que hasta los 54 años la mayoría de las personas ve su salud como “buena” o “muy buena”, pero a partir de los 55 años muchos comienzan a percibir su salud como “regular”. Dado que el número de personas mayores est...

Los resultados de la Encuesta Mundial de Valores de 2018 mostraron que, en ese momento, las y los chilenos tenían una visión más neutra (e incluso positiva) de la migración. ¿Crees que esa mirada ha cambiado en los últimos años?

Los resultados de la encuesta CEP de agosto de 2021 muestran que, en general, las y los chilenos valoran más la seguridad y el orden público por sobre sus libertades públicas y privadas.

Según datos recogidos de las encuestas World Values Surveys, las y los chilenos hemos tomado mayor conciencia de la importancia del cuidado del medio ambiente. ¿Crees que estamos a tiempo de hacer un cambio real?

En comparación con inicios de los ‘90, las y los chilenos están cada vez más de acuerdo con el aborto, de acuerdo a la World Values Survey (1990-2018). ¿Piensas que el retorno a la democracia fue un factor que influyó en ello? ¿O crees que los movimientos feministas son más relevantes para explicar este cambio?

Los resultados de la encuesta WVS Chile 2018 mostraron que, en general, las personas de 55 o más años tienden a alentar en mayor número a sus cercanos para que ejerzan su derecho a voto. ¿Crees que la responsabilidad cívica ha disminuido con los años?

The population is aging worldwide, creating new challenges to the quality of life of older adults and their families. Falls are an increasing but not inevitable threat to older adults. Information technologies provide several solutions to address falls, but smart homes and the most available solutions require expensive and invasive infrastructures...

Según la encuesta CEP de abril de 2021, la desconfianza en la información que recibimos sobre COVID-19 depende del medio que la entrega y de la edad de quien la recibe. Las personas mayores desconfían más de la información recibida por redes sociales, mientras que los jóvenes no confían en la TV. En tanto, la radio es un medio confiable para gran p...

Al observar la encuesta CEP de agosto de 2021, se observa que, en general, los chilenos se alinean más con las posturas políticas de centro, tendiendo a la izquierda en los jóvenes y hacia la derecha en las personas mayores. ¿Crees que es así en la realidad?

Los resultados de la Encuesta CEP de abril 2021 muestran que las personas tienden a confiar más en lo que digan sus amigos y familiares de la pandemia, en desmedro de la información que proviene de científicos, expertos y autoridades. ¿A qué crees que se deben estos resultados?

We characterized substance use patterns and co-occurring substance use disorders among active cocaine base paste (CBP) users in Santiago, Chile using data from respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in three areas of Metropolitan Santiago. Recruitment began with nine seeds, reaching 398 active CBP users (18% women; mean age 37.7 years), defined as person...

Chronic disease and multimorbidity are growing health challenges for aging populations, often coinciding with retirement. We examine late-life predictors of multimorbidity, focusing on the association between retirement sequences and number of chronic diseases. We modeled the number of chronic diseases as a function of six types of previously ident...

The notion of social belongingness has been applied to different scales, from individual to social processes, and from subjective to objective dimensions. This article seeks to contribute to this multidimensional perspective on belongingness by drawing from the capabilities and subjective wellbeing perspectives. The specific aim is to analyze the r...

Retirement timing can have important health implications. Little is known, however, about older adults’ views on this issue and whether they consider it better to retire later, earlier, on time or anytime. This knowledge gap about older adults’ views is particularly true outside North America and Europe. This qualitative study aims to examine older...

Countries across the globe are experiencing declining rates of fertility and marriage, which present a distinct challenge for older adults’ social integration, well-being, and end-of-life care. However, older adults who are “alone” (e.g., no partner, no child) may not be lonely, and end-of-life risks faced by “kinless” older adults likely vary sign...

Background and Aims Age‐related changes in physiological, metabolic and medication profiles make alcohol consumption likely to be more harmful among older than younger adults. This study aimed to estimate cross‐national variation in the quantity and patterns of drinking throughout older age, and to investigate country‐level variables explaining cro...

Retirement timing can have important health implications. Little is known, however, about older adults’ views on this issue and whether they consider it better to retire later, earlier, on time or anytime. This knowledge gap about older adults’ views is particularly true outside North America and Europe. This qualitative study aims to examine older...

In the past 10 years, China's rural pension reform has made remarkable achievements and basically covered all rural residents in a relatively short period of time. The new rural pension system combines social pensions with voluntary accumulation personal accounts and adopts a family package payment policy with Chinese characteristics. However, the...

Background Sociodemographic inequalities in depression are well established. However, less is known about variation in inequalities across countries. In this study, we describe cross-national variation in sociodemographic inequalities in depression among older adults. Comparing inequalities across countries is an important step towards understandin...

Background Alcohol consumption causes greater harm in older than younger adults. As the population ages, understanding cross-country and time-varying drinking patterns of older adults is of critical importance. Available evidence relies primarily on ecological data. Methods We harmonized survey data for 179,881 adults age 50+ observed repeatedly b...

Background and Aims Uruguay and Chile have the highest levels of marijuana use in Latin America, and have experienced consistent increases during the last two decades. We aim to calculate separate age–period–cohort (APC) effects for past‐year marijuana use in Uruguay and Chile, which have similar epidemiologica, and demographic profiles but divergi...

The success of private pension systems to provide old-age security is mainly a function of continuous individual pension contributions linked to formal employment. Using a rich longitudinal dataset from Chile and employing sequence analysis, this study examines the pension contribution histories and formal employment pathways of a cohort of individ...

The literature on socio-economic variations in the association between retirement timing and health is inconclusive and largely limited to the moderating role of occupation. By selecting the sample case of Mexico where a sizeable number of older adults have no or very little formal education, this study allows the moderating role of education to be...

Background: Alcohol consumption in later life has increased in the past decade, and the relationship between alcohol consumption and mortality is controversial. Recent studies suggest little, if any, health benefit to alcohol. Yet most rely on single-time point consumption assessments and minimal confounder adjustments. Methods: We report on 16...

Background: Previous research has explored the relationship between childhood and adulthood stressful life events (SLEs) and adult salivary telomere length (TL), but no research to date has tested different life-course models in which stress in adulthood may fully, partly, or not mediate the relationship between childhood stress and adult TL. Met...

Alcohol consumption is increasing in many countries, and excessive alcohol consumption is particularly increasing among older adults. Excessive alcohol consumption causes morbidity and mortality, especially among older adults, including an increased risk of depressive episodes. We review the mechanisms through which alcohol consumption may affect d...

Numerous studies examine the relationship between social stressors and telomere length (TL). Beyond considering methods and major findings, this scoping systematic review takes a novel approach as it groups studies according to the types of social stressor considered and by age groups. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched PubMed, Web of Science...

Objective: This study analyzes the dynamic association between retirement sequences and activities of daily living (ADLs) trajectories between ages 60 and 70. Method: Retirement sequences previously established for 7,880 older Americans from the Health and Retirement Study were used in hierarchical linear and propensity score full matching model...

This investigation uses case studies and comparative analysis to review and analyze aging policy in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Mexico, and uncovers similarities and relevant trends in the substance of historical and current aging policy across countries. Initial charity-based approaches to poverty and illness have been gradually replaced by...

Objective This study aims to address gaps in health conditions and unmet needs in daily activities between people with dementia (PWD) and without dementia in a developing country and to identify the variables associated with unmet needs among PWD to guide practitioners and policymakers in dealing with an increased burden of dementia. Methods Natio...

Background: Traditional factors leave substantial risk for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) unexplained. Recent literature addressing this limitation identifies non-traditional risk factors, such as depression and clinical biomarkers. This study explored retirement sequences as a new non-traditional risk factor for CVD among older Americans. M...

This study analyzes the de-standardization in older Americans’ later-life careers. The focus is on the complexity in type, order, and timing of retirement sequences, as well as on their gender, class, and race stratification. Using sequence analysis on panel data including 7,881 individuals from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this study ide...

Abstract-Population aging is among the most important global transformations. Compared to European and North American countries, Chile is among the countries with the fastest growth of life expectancy at birth during recent decades. The aging of Chile's population is related to the improvement of living conditions, but also entails risks that tend...

Using a life course approach to look at trajectories and transitions in context, this study explores the association between late careers and health in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). We hypothesize that precarious retirement sequences are associated with worse health in old age and that this correlation is stronger in the US th...

Numerous policy reforms in the 21 century have tried to extend working lives without paying enough attention to the gendered nature of late careers. Combining a life-course approach with sequence analysis techniques, this study empirically explores how gendered are late careers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Drawing on data for the la...

This symposium will feature cross-national studies on labor-force and health in later life. Drawing on current internationally harmonized data, this symposium will present papers exploring cross-national variations and group differences in labor-force participation rates and health at older ages, as well as in the relationship between the two.

The prevalence of alcohol consumption and its effects on mortality and morbidity have received substantial attention. Most of the evidence is based on single-country studies or in comparative studies of the general population. In contrast, comparative estimates of the prevalence of alcohol consumption among older adults have received less attention...

Purpose of the study: A destandardization of labor-force patterns revolving around retirement has been observed in recent literature. It is unclear, however, to which degree and of which kind. This study looked at sequences rather than individual statuses or transitions and argued that differentiating older Americans' retirement sequences by type,...

Purpose of the study: Work is an important environment shaping the aging processes during the adult years. Therefore, the cumulative and acute effects of work characteristics on late-life health deserve great attention. Given that population aging has become a global trend with ensuing changes in labor markets around the world, increased attention...

Históricamente, el debate sobre el envejecimiento ha estado excesivamente centrado en sus elementos negativos. Aunque las políticas previsionales y de salud son fundamentales, el énfasis en los jubilados y enfermos ha llevado a pensar en las personas mayores como consumidores o cargas y no como productores o recursos valiosos para la sociedad

This study assesses the influence of the Chilean old-age pension model on the life satisfaction of older adults across the world. Numerous countries have implemented similar old-age pension reforms, combining individualization of risk through pension privatization and redistribution of resources through mechanisms such as non-contributory pensions....

Este capítulo discute consideraciones no pecuniarias en torno a la reforma del sistema de pensiones chileno. El diseño del sistema de pensiones ha sido poco sensible al contexto, lo cual ha resultado en recursos insuficientes para financiar periodos de jubilación más extensos. Aumentar la edad de jubilación puede tener un efecto perjudicial en la s...

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between patients' object relations and interpersonal process in psychotherapy. Namely, we tested the hypothesis that the quality of patients' object relations is positively associated with both patient- and therapist-rated alliance quality. Design: Psychotherapy was administered naturalistically,...

In spite of the high prevalence of mental health disorders in Chile, there is a significant financing deficit in this area when compared to the world’s average. The financing for mental health has not increased in accordance with the objectives proposed in the 2000 Chilean National Mental Health and Psychiatry Plan, and only three of the six mental...

In spite of the high prevalence of mental health disorders in Chile, there is a significant financing deficit in this area when compared to the world’s average. The financing for mental health has not increased in accordance with the objectives proposed in the 2000 Chilean National Mental Health and Psychiatry Plan, and only three of the six mental...

To evaluate the effect of a smoking ban in high schools on smoking behaviour among Chilean students. We conducted an interrupted time-series analysis, using repeated cross-sectional data from Chile's school population survey (2000-2011) for high-school students aged 12-18 years and a control group of persons aged 19-24 years. Poisson regression mod...

Although the negative association between unemployment and life satisfaction is welldocumented, much theoretical and empirical controversy surrounds the question of how unemployment actually shapes life satisfaction. Previous studies suggest that unemployment may endanger subjective well-being through individual experiences, contextual influences,...

Desde la llamada Revolución de los Pingüinos en 2006 a las reformas educativas de mediados de la década del 2010, la educación se ha convertido en uno de los temas más candentes y arduamente debatidos en Chile. Los que abogan por reformas profundas, en la senda de la gratuidad y equidad de acceso, se enfrentan duramente a aquellos que salen en defe...

OBJECTIVE: This article explores the effects of the timing of retirement on healthy behavior. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we test four theory-based hypotheses about these effects: that retirements maximize health outcomes and behaviors when they happen earlier, later, anytime, or on time. METHODS: We employ fixed an...

OBJECTIVE: This article explores the effects of the timing of retirement on subjective health and drinking behavior. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we test four theory-based hypotheses about these effectsthat retirements maximize health outcomes and behaviors when they happen earlier, later, anytime, or on time. METHOD...

Objectives: This article explores the effects of the timing of retirement on subjective physical and emotional health. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we test 4 theory-based hypotheses about these effects-that retirements maximize health when they happen earlier, later, anytime, or on time. Method: We employ fixed an...

Los chilenos de hoy esperan vivir más y también vivir mejor. Según el informe de “Estadísticas Sanitarias Mundiales 2012” de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), los chilenos que nacen hoy esperan vivir 79 años. Esto es siete años más que los que nacieron en 1990 y 25 años más que los que nacieron en 1950. Este aumento radical en la expectati...

Históricamente el debate sobre el envejecimiento ha estado excesivamente centrado en sus elementos negativos. En el debate sobre políticas públicas, el foco ha sido el “problema” que el envejecimiento presenta para la solvencia y sustentabilidad de las políticas previsionales y de salud. La discusión dominante ha sido acerca de cómo financiar las j...

Global happiness rankings have flourished during the past decade, getting increased attention in public policy debates throughout the world. Policymakers and academics are demanding new measures of societal well-being that go beyond income. International organizations such as the UN and OECD are supporting the development of multidimensional measur...

OBJECTIVE: This article explores the relationship between the timing of retirement and subjective well-being change following that transition. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we test four theory-based hypotheses about this relationship—that retirements maximize subjective well-being when they happen earlier, late...

Este estudio analiza la aceptación de los médicos respecto de la estandariza­ción de la atención clínica que conlleva la reforma de Acceso Universal con Garantías Explícitas (AUGE) y de Garantías Explícitas en Salud (GES) iniciada en el año 2005 en Chile. Se realizaron 18 entrevistas semiestructuradas, en las que se exploran cuatro hipótesis vincul...

Este estudio analiza la aceptación de los médicos respecto de la estandarización de la atención clínica que conlleva la reforma de Acceso Universal con Garantías Explícitas (AUGE) y de Garantías Explícitas en Salud (GES) iniciada en el año 2005 en Chile. Se realizaron 18 entrevistas semiestructuradas, en las que se exploran cuatro hipótesis vincula...

This study analyzes the degree to which Chilean doctors accept the standardization of clinical health care associated with the 2005 Health Reform AUGE-GES (from the Spanish Acceso Universal con Garantías Explícitas - Garantías Explícitas en Salud). Using 18 semi-structured interviews, four hypotheses were explored in relation to the level of accept...

La simpleza de los rankings mundiales de la felicidad ha facilitado su acogida en los debates sobre políticas públicas, que están deseosos por incorporar nuevas medidas del bienestar de las sociedades. Lamentablemente, éstos han sido interpretados de forma poco cuidadosa, tratando las diferencias entre países como si tuvieran una certeza que en la...

El interes en medir la felicidad es compartido por muchas autoridades, academicos y profesionales comprometidos con mejorar el bienestar no monetario de las personas. Organismos internacionales como la OCDE y la ONU apoyan oficialmente la implementacion de mediciones de felicidad y bienestar subjetivo. Chile y otros paises como Butan, Francia e Ing...

En 1981, Chile inició una ronda de reformas a los sistemas de pensiones que introdujo cuentas individuales de pensión de tipo obligatorio, alejándose así de los sistemas públicos. A principios de los 1990s, otros diez países Latinoamericanos siguieron el ejemplo de Chile. En años recientes, incluso antes del comienzo de la crisis financiera, una se...

This article reviews two rounds of pension reform in ten Latin American countries to determine whether they are moving away from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Although the idea is provocative, we conclude that the notion of ‘moving away from IRAs’ is insufficient to characterise the new politics of pension reform. As opposed to the politic...

En 1981, Chile inicio una ronda de reformas a los sistemas de pensiones que introdujo cuentas individuales de pension de tipo obligatorio, alejandose asi de los sistemas publicos. A principios de los 1990s, otros diez paises Latinoamericanos siguieron el ejemplo de Chile. En anos recientes, incluso antes del comienzo de la crisis financiera, una se...

In 1981, Chile initiated old-age pension reforms that introduced mandatory funded individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and moved away from public systems. Beginning in the 1990s, ten other Latin American countries followed in Chile’s wake. In recent years, even before the onset of the financial crisis, a second round of pension reforms was initiat...

INTRODUCTION: Much literature debates whether retirement transitions lead to increased or reduced well-being. We attribute the persistence of this controversy to the lack of theorizing on life course transitions and argue that the effects of such transitions can be either beneficial or detrimental depending on their characteristics such as speed (g...

The lore on whether older Americans move is mixed. While the familiar stereotype is that retirees flock to Florida or Arizona, prior studies have found that their home equity rises modestly over time, suggesting that they tend to stay put. This paper examines moving trends, determinants, and consequences using the original cohort of the Health and...

Moving is an important decision for any homeowner, requiring one to weigh the familiar comforts of a home and neighborhood against the uncertain potential of a new location. A move decision may be even more challenging for an older person. On the one hand, older people often have a decades-long attachment to their current residence. On the other ha...

This study explores the factors that affect an individual's happiness while transitioning into retirement. Recent studies find that workers often view the idea of gradual retirement as a more attractive alternative than a "cold turkey" or abrupt retirement. However, there is very little evidence as to whether phasing or cold turkey makes for a happ...