María del Carmen Vilariño López (p), André Carrascal-Incera, Melchor Fernández-Fernández, Yolanda Pena-Boquete

Health care expenditure in the OECD countries has grown quickly in the last decades and taking into account the current demographic trend regarding aging, we can anticipate that this expenditure will continue growing. Therefore, being able to satisfy efficiently the increasing demand for health services becomes a priority in policy and economic agendas nowadays. Although there is a wide literature on specific and individual health conditions, we are not aware of any study trying to evaluate the macroeconomic impact of health care systems (HCS) in general, comparing them internationally. This paper uses information from the 2015 OECD Input-Output tables (IO) for showing how differences in HCS (mainly public vs mainly private, hospital vs clinics, etc.) result in differences in economic outcomes too (in terms of production or employment).
Firstly, we will try to identify homogeneous groups of countries by the productive structure of the sector and its outcomes using a Cluster Analysis.
Secondly, we present the notion of the “hypothetical introduction method”, a technique that helps us to evaluate the macroeconomic effects of changing the existing technology of health care production in a country for a different HCS. Results on the new total demand for health services that can be satisfied with a different HCS are obtained using this method.

Luca Daconto (p), Matteo Colleoni, Simone Caiello, Sara Zizzari

The paper presents the main results of “Food Social Sensor Network - Food NET”, a R&I project supported by the Lombardy Region (POR FESR 2014-2020) that aims to build a platform to provide guidelines and technologies to improve food access and to create functional food for over 65 years old citizens living in the Metropolitan City of Milan.
Access to healthy food, defined as the ability of people to consistently acquire, both physically and economically, sufficient amounts of healthful food, significantly affects older people’s wellbeing and quality of life (Zajczyk, 2018). In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the key role played by urban environment in influencing the level and quality of food access (Moragues-Faus & Morgan, 2015) and older people’s quality of life (WHO, 2007).
In this framework, Food-NET evaluated the conditions of older people’s food access in the Metropolitan City of Milan from different perspectives (e.g. spatial, socio-economical, medical-nutritional). The aim has been to identify the factors on which to intervene to ensure food accessibility and healthy aging through flexible and socially acceptable interventions. In this sense, the outcomes of the project will also be made available to policy makers, stakeholders and over 65 years old citizens through the development of an ICT platform and a Mobile App.

Ilaria Mariotti (p), Claudia Burlando , Stefano Landi

Developing environments responsive to the aspirations and needs of older people has become a major concern for social and public policy. According to the activity theory, psychological well-being in old age is based upon the level of activity and social contacts which are maintained (Havighurst,1968). Recent research (Moorer andSuurmeijer, 2001) shows that participation in activities is related to larger social networks and fewer feelings of loneliness. It also confirms that the possibility of outdoor mobility contributes to elderly people’s life satisfaction (Mollenkopf et al., 1997).
As the activity space of elderly persons shrinks with growing age, the conditions within the immediate residential environment increase in importance (Golant, 1984; Horgaset al., 1998; Schwanen et al., 2001). Therefore, it is important, though nevertheless difficult, to formulate guidelines for an age-appropriate residential environment.
Within this context, the paper aims to explore the determinants of the elderly renounce to their “mobility/activity” because of perceived inadequacy of LPT service. The focus is on the cities of Milan and Genoa in the north of Italy, where 3 peripheral neighborhoods in Milan and 4 in Genoa are analyzed, respectively.