Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
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Grey matters: growing older in deprived areas: a guide for donors and grant-makers
- Authors:
- BOTHAM Claudia, LUMLEY Tristan
- Publisher:
- New Philanthropy Capital
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 76p.
- Place of publication:
- London
For many of the older people living in deprived areas, growing older does not mean having access to the kind of opportunities for an active lifestyle and self-fulfilment that we might hope to have after retirement. Poverty, which is deeper and more persistent for older people than for working age adults, prevents people from accessing many of the activities that are associated with an active retirement. Approximately 2 million older people have been in poverty for at least three of the last four years. The health inequalities that are associated with poverty mean that older people in deprived areas die younger, and spend more time in ill health. The poorest 10% of people are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 65 as the richest 10%. One of the problems linked to poverty in later life is isolation. This means seeing friends, family or neighbours less than once a week and affects at least 2 million older people in the UK. Isolation can lead to decreasing physical and mental health, and makes older people almost invisible to support services that might help them. Completing the vicious cycle of problems for older people in deprived areas is exclusion - a complex situation in which the normal support structures of society have broken down for an individual, and problems like poverty and isolation are made even worse. Some people are more likely to be trapped in this vicious cycle, including older women, the over 75s, older people with disabilities, those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and older lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals.
Older and colder: the views of older people experiencing difficulties keeping warm in winter
- Author:
- WRIGHT Fay
- Publisher:
- Help the Aged
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 60p.
- Place of publication:
- London
The report seeks to examine the views, attitudes, perceptions and behaviour of older people who are in fuel poverty or who are concerned about heating their homes. The study offers an important new perspective on what should be done to ensure that older people in the UK live in warm homes during the winter months.
Deprivation, demography, and the distribution of general practice: challenging the conventional wisdom of inverse care
- Authors:
- ASTHANA Sheena, GIBSON Alex
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of General Practice, 58(555), October 2008, pp.720-728.
- Publisher:
- Royal College of General Practitioners
It is generally believed that the most deprived populations have the worst access to primary care. Lord Darzi's review of the NHS responds to this conventional wisdom and makes a number of proposals for improving the supply of GP services in deprived communities. This paper argues that these proposals are based on an incomplete understanding of inverse care which underestimates the degree to which, relative to their healthcare needs, older populations experience low availability of primary care. Many deprived practices appear to have a better match between need and supply than practices serving affluent but ageing populations. However, practices serving the oldest and most deprived populations have the worst availability of all.
Poverty, wealth inequality and health among older adults in rural Cambodia
- Author:
- ZIMMER Zachery
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 66(1), January 2008, pp.57-71.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Little research exists on health determinants among adults living in economically deprived regions despite the fact that these areas comprise a good part of the world. This paper examines the distribution of wealth then tests associations between wealth inequality and a variety of health outcomes, among older adults, in one of the world's poorest regions—rural Cambodia. Data from the 2004 Survey of the Elderly in Cambodia are employed. Using a disablement framework to conceptualize health, associations between four health components and a wealth inequality measure are tested. The wealth inequality measure is based on an index that operationalizes wealth as ownership of household assets and household structural components. Results confirm difficult economic conditions in rural Cambodia. The lowest wealth quintile lives in households that own nothing, while the next quintiles are only slightly better off. Nevertheless, logistic regressions that adjust for other covariates indicate heterogeneity in health across quintiles that appear qualitatively similar, with the bottom quintiles reporting the most health problems. An exception is disability, which presents a U-shaped association. It is difficult to determine mechanisms behind the relationship using cross-sectional data, but the paper speculates on possible causal directions, both from wealth to health and vice-versa. The analysis suggests the ability to generalize the relationship between wealth inequality and health to extremely poor populations as a very small difference in wealth makes a relatively large difference with respect to health associations among those in meagre surroundings.
Poverty and hardship among the aged in urban China
- Authors:
- SAUNDERS Peter, LUJUN Sun
- Journal article citation:
- Social Policy and Administration, 40(2), April 2006, pp.138-159.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
China's record in reducing poverty over the last three decades has been impressive, yet few studies have examined the incidence of poverty among older people despite the rapid ageing of the population. This article uses a unique national data set to examine patterns of poverty, deprivation and exclusion among the urban aged population (60 years and over) in 2000. The results point to the importance of poverty as an issue for older people, particularly for women and those who live alone. A number of indicators of hardship are developed in four areas – economic insecurity, housing, health, and social isolation – and the incidence of these is examined, separately and in combination, by living arrangement and gender. Women are shown to experience greater levels of hardship and isolation than men, and to be more likely to experience multiple deprivation across two or more areas. Finally, the overlap between poverty and hardship is examined as a way of validating the poverty estimates and giving them greater credibility. The results indicate that there are strong overlaps, although these differ across the different dimensions of hardship. Access to pension income and concern over the cost of necessary visits to see a doctor emerge as strong predictors of poverty and point to areas where policy change is needed.
Older labour migrants' well being in Europe: the case of Switzerland
- Authors:
- BOLZMAN Claudio, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 24(3), May 2004, pp.411-429.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
Examines several aspects of the social situation of the older immigrant population in Switzerland. Reviews their demographic history and characteristics and provides profiles of their health and well being, their material standard of life and access to social security and related benefits. It reports selected findings from an original survey of older Italian and Spanish citizens who are resident in the country, which show relatively high rates of disadvantage and poverty. The determination of a large proportion of the immigrant population to remain in Switzerland after they have ceased work demonstrates that the minorities who entered the country as labour migrants will become a permanent element of the Swiss population and its society. Neither the politicians nor the general public in Switzerland have yet accepted the reality of this new diversity. Concludes by discussing the social policy and attitudinal options that face the governments and the population of Switzerland and many other European countries.
Estimating need in older people: findings for England
- Author:
- AGE UK
- Publisher:
- Age UK
- Publication year:
- 2019
- Pagination:
- 24
- Place of publication:
- London
This report estimates the numbers of older people living with ill health, poverty, unmet needs for care and support, loneliness, social isolation and poor housing in England. It also collates findings from qualitative studies to provide insights from older people’s own voices about the experience of living with these different needs. The report estimates that there are up to 5.9 million people aged 65 and over living with need. Analysis of the qualitative studies found the main areas of struggle in life for older people are ill health with associated disability and restricted mobility, lack of help with everyday activities, money, problems associated with home and housing, loneliness and social isolation. (Edited publisher abstract)
Briefing: understanding the health care needs of people with multiple health conditions
- Authors:
- STAFFORD Mai, et al
- Publisher:
- Health Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 26
- Place of publication:
- London
This briefing paper reports on an analysis of data from 2014 to 2016 for 300,000 people in England to examine the number of people with multiple health conditions and what needs to be done to address their complex needs. The analysis found that one in four adults had 2 or more health conditions, equating to approximately 14.2 million people in England. Over half of NHS costs for hospital admissions and outpatient visits and over three quarters of the costs of primary care prescriptions were for people living with 2+ conditions. Those in the most-deprived areas were also more likely to experience multiple long term conditions at an earlier age than those in the less deprived areas. The report sets out six steps the NHS could take to improve care for people with multiple conditions: supporting those with multiple conditions to live well; developing new models of NHS care for those with multiple conditions; resourcing the vital role of primary care; designing secondary care around those with multiple conditions; using data and sharing information to improve care for those with multiple conditions; and evaluating what works. (Edited publisher abstract)
Socioeconomic differences in health among older adults in Mexico
- Authors:
- SMITH Kimberly, GOLDMAN Noreen
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 65(7), October 2007, pp.1372-1385.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Although the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health is well-established in Western industrialized countries, few studies have examined this association in developing countries, particularly among older cohorts. We use the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative survey of Mexicans age 50 and older, to investigate the linkages between three indicators of SES (education, income, and wealth) and a set of health outcomes and behaviours in more and less urban areas of Mexico. We consider three measures of current health (self-rated health and two measures of physical functioning) and three behavioural indicators (obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption). In urban areas, we find patterns similar to those in industrialized countries: higher SES individuals are more likely to report better health than their lower SES counterparts, regardless of the SES measure considered. In contrast, we find few significant SES–health associations in less urban areas. The results for health behaviours are generally similar between the two areas of residence. One exception is the education–obesity relationship. Our results suggest that education is a protective factor for obesity in urban areas and a risk factor in less urban areas. Contrary to patterns in the industrialized world, income is associated with higher rates of obesity, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption. We also evaluate age and sex differences in the SES–health relationship among older Mexicans. The results suggest that further economic development in Mexico may lead to a widening of socioeconomic inequalities in health. The study also provides insight into why socioeconomic gradients in health are weak among Mexican-Americans and underscores the importance of understanding health inequalities in Latin America for research on Hispanic health patterns in the US.
Exceptions to the rule: healthy deprived areas and unhealthy wealthy areas
- Authors:
- VAN HOOIJDONK Carolien, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 64(6), March 2007, pp.1326-1342.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
In general, inhabitants of low socio-economic areas are unhealthier than inhabitants of high socio-economic areas, but some areas are an exception to this rule. These exceptions imply that other factors besides the socio-economic level of an area contribute to the health of the inhabitants of an area, e.g. environmental factors. In our study we concentrate on areas within the Netherlands that are healthier or unhealthier than could be expected based on their socio-economic level. This study first identifies these areas and secondly determines which area characteristics distinguish these areas from those areas where the level of health is in agreement with their socio-economic level. We used nation-wide data on neighbourhood differences in population composition (gender, age, marital status and ethnicity), urbanisation and two health indicators: mortality and hospitalisation rates. In the Netherlands, many areas are healthier or unhealthier than could be expected based on their income level alone. Areas with higher mortality rates than expected are mainly urban areas with high percentages of elderly people and persons living alone. Similar but opposite associations are observed for areas with lower mortality rates than expected, which are further characterised by a low percentage of non-western immigrants. Areas with lower hospitalisation rates than expected are mainly rural areas with few non-western immigrants. From these results, we conclude that urbanisation and residential segregation based on age, ethnicity and marital status might be important contributors to geographical health inequalities.