Document is current

Article History

Received: 1 December 2025

Accepted: 23 March 2026

First Online: 4 April 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This study involves the secondary analysis of fully anonymized, publicly available datasets from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), provided by Eurofound. As the research utilized solely de-identified data and involved no direct interaction with human participants, primary ethics approval was not applicable for this specific analysis. The original data collection by Eurofound was conducted in strict adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki and relevant European ethical guidelines. In accordance with institutional regulations regarding secondary non-interventional research, studies utilizing fully anonymized, open-access datasets are exempted from requiring new ethical approval.

: This study utilizes a pre-existing, fully anonymized dataset (EQLS); therefore, obtaining direct informed consent from participants was not applicable for this secondary analysis. Comprehensive informed consent was originally obtained by the primary data collectors (Eurofound) prior to dataset anonymization and public release. During the primary data collection phase, all participants were fully informed regarding the purpose of the research, the absolute assurance of their anonymity, and the subsequent utilization of their data for secondary academic research purposes.