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Research and policy

Latest research and policy about ageing

This report examines how high streets are used to improve the overall health of local communities and reviews the evidence on healthy high streets in urban settings. Read more

Publication | Public Health England | 17 January 2018

Fulfilling work

Retirement plans and active ageing perspectives in three countries

Principi A, Santini S, Socci M (et al), Ageing and Society, 38 (1) January 2018

How do older people’s real-life retirement plans match the active ageing agenda set out by policy makers? This study, carried out in England, Italy and the USA, finds that while older people’s retirement plans substantially align with the active ageing agenda, there is a need to do more to promote genuine freedom of choice around leaving the labour market and to provide greater support for informal, family carers. While in England and the USA participants often planned to stay active in the labour market post-retirement, this was much less true in Italy.

Pensions

Public/private pension mix, income inequality and poverty among the elderly in Europe

Been J, Caminada K, Goudswaard K and van Vliet O, Social Policy and Administration, 51(7) December 2017

Higher levels of public pension are traditionally associated with lower levels of income inequality among older people, while the reverse is true for private pensions. This study, carried out in 17 European countries including the UK, examines empirically whether a relative shift from public to private pensions worsens income inequality in older age. It confirms that a move towards private pensions is associated with higher levels of income inequality and poverty.

Dependency on the State Pension through retirement

Pensions Policy Institute – 10 January 2018

Most pensioners will experience a number of transitions or life events over the course of their retirement. These events will affect retirement income levels, while the sources of income increase at different rates. This can result in some losing value in real terms as pensioners grow older. This leads to the proportion of their income that comes from the State Pension and state benefits varying over time. This briefing uses data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing to explore the role of State Pension in people's lives by measuring dependency.

Homes, neighbourhoods and communities

The oldest old and the risk of social exclusion

Key W and Culliney M, Social Policy and Society, 17 (1) January 2018

Are the oldest old, people aged 85 and over, at greater risk of social exclusion? Social exclusion is a process where a minority are denied the citizenship rights held by the ‘included’ majority. Social exclusion is forced on an older person by virtue of their social or economic circumstances and is not the same as social isolation. This study, focusing on service access and social contact, concludes that the oldest old are at greater risk of both types of social exclusion. This greater risk persists even after living alone and poorer levels of health, experienced by the oldest old, are taken into account.

English Housing Survey: headline report 2017-17

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – 25 January 2018

This report outlines initial findings from the latest English Housing Survey. The survey examines people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of their homes. It also identifies housing trends for different age groups in England.

Care and support

Frailty and social care: over- or under-familiar terms?

Manthorpe J, Iliffe S, Harris J, Moriarty J and Stevens M, Social Policy and Society, 17(1) January 2018

What is meant by frailty? Frailty is a concept used more commonly in the medical environment than in social care. It may describe a stable physical state, in contrast to the dynamic process of dying, or a combination of physical and mental disabilities. In social care it is used as a reason for care home residency, particularly among older residents, to distinguish from residents with dementia. It has been loosely used to describe anyone over 65 with a chronic illness and is sometimes seen as a way of ‘problematising’ older people. This study looks at the various views of frailty adopted by different professions and the consequent issues arising from being ‘separated by a common language’.

The treatment of informal care-related risks as social risks: an analysis of the English care policy system

Morgan F, Journal of Social Policy, 47 (1) January 2018

This article considers the role and effect of government and care policy in England on care-related risk in relation to the provision of informal care to people aged 65 and over. It concludes that a system-wide restructure is required to ensure all care relationships are provided with comprehensive, consistent and adequate social protection. Findings reveal informal carers, and the older people they care for, receive inadequate and inconsistent statutory protection against the poverty and welfare risks they face and, moreover, that the design and operationalisation of the care policy system generates risks for care relationships.

Factors related to medical students' and doctors' attitudes towards older patients

Samra R, Cox T, Lee Gordon A (et al), Age and Ageing, 46(6) November 2017

Earlier studies have identified widespread ageism and age discrimination in health services in the UK, based not on policies, but on the attitudes of medical professionals and the cumulative effect of millions of individual medical decisions, each influenced by the age of the patient. This review examines the attitudes of medical students and doctors towards their older patients. Positive attitudes are linked to previous good relationships with grandparents and family friends and relate both to the reasons for entering the medical profession and a preference for working with older people. Female medical professionals are more likely than males to adopt a positive attitude towards older patients.

Chronic conditions and use of health care service among German centenarians

Von Berenberg P, Drager D, Zahn T (et al), Age and Ageing, 46(6) November 2017

What are the health and care needs of centenarians? This study of over 1,000 German centenarians finds that 6% do not receive support of any kind, 45% receive homecare and 49% are receiving long-term care. The vast majority (97%) needed to see a GP in the previous year. Women are less likely than men to not need any care and more likely than men to be in long-term care. On average, centenarians in the study had been prescribed six different drugs in the previous year.

Opinion poll of MPs on social care provision in England

Independent Age and ComRes – 23 January 2018

This survey of 119 MPs finds that fewer than two in five MPs agree that the care homes market is performing well in their constituency. The polling data also reflects concerns that the quality of the care homes market will deteriorate over the next year.

Health and wellbeing

Focus on physical activity can help avoid unnecessary social care

McNally S, Nunan D, Dixon A, Maruthappu M, Butler K and Gray M, BMJ, 2017;359:j4609 2017

The severe loss of physical ability that many older people experience is not an inevitable part of ageing. At any age and with any combination of health problems, physical exercise may reverse this decline and keep a person above the threshold for needing increased care. The UK chief medical officer’s guidelines recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity plus twice weekly strength and balance training for adults of all ages. Any physical activity for at least 10 minutes that gets someone slightly out of breath contributes to the 150 minute weekly minimum target.

New horizons in multimorbidity in older adults

Yarnall A J, Sayer A A, Clegg A (et al), Age and Ageing, 46(6) November 2017

Multimorbidity is the presence of two or more ‘long-term conditions’, conditions that cannot currently be cured but can be controlled through medication or other treatments. Multimorbidity increases with both social deprivation and age. There is an overlap between multimorbidity and frailty but frailty implies functional impairment and while the majority of frail older people have multimorbidity, the majority of older people who experience multimorbidity are not frail. NICE guidelines advocate an approach to care that takes account of multimorbidity involving a personalised assessment and the development of an individualised management plan. One associated danger of multimorbidity is polypharmacy, the prescription of multiple medications by individual specialists without an overall medication review.

Hidden hunger and malnutrition in the elderly

All Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger – 22 January 2018

This report calls on the government to look more closely at malnutrition in older people which is estimated to cost the NHS and social care £15.7 billion a year by 2030. It argues that targeted investment in services that protect older people from malnutrition would deliver significant annual savings to the NHS, not least by reducing the number of hospital admissions and limiting the number of days older people spend in hospital.

Statistics

UK labour market: January 2018

Office for National Statistics – 24 January 2018

This dataset provides estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics for the UK. The data also summarises the information on the number of people in the UK aged 65 and over who are employed, unemployed and economically inactive.