The objective of the research is to obtain a more in-depth understanding of Russian-speaking individuals aged 50 and above living in Finland, focusing on their health, well-being, service experiences, as well as their use of digital public health and social care services. The survey also included questions on transnational relations, integration and sense of belonging, among others. The research group aims to disseminate the results widely to various collaborative stakeholders. The research findings provide crucial additional information about the health status and experiences of the Russian-speaking population in Finland regarding the use of health and care services, which can be used in the future as support for service development and political decision-making.
The research is based on surveys conducted in 2019 and 2022. The baseline survey of the research was sent by mail in 2019 to 3,000 randomly selected Russian-speaking individuals permanently residing in Finland, who were 50 years or older by 2018. 36% (n=1082) of them responded. In October 2022, we sent a follow-up survey to these 1,082 respondents to assess changes in the health and living conditions of Russian-speaking individuals aged 50 or older. Nearly 70% (n=724) of the first wave respondents answered in the second wave too.
The survey responses can be weighted to better represent the target population of Russian-speaking individuals aged 50 and above living in Finland. In the creation of weights we used tax information from the year 2017 including information on earned and capital income, unemployment benefits, national and guarantee pensions, and student benefits.
The survey data can supplemented with information from other data controllers (such as the Finnish Centre for Pensions, the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Statistics Finland) if the participants have given their consent for this.
The CHARM study is being conducted at the University of Helsinki, in the MICA research group, which is part of the Centre of Excellence in Aging and Care Research (CoE AgeCare). The research is funded by the Academy of Finland.