An article examined the views of older adults who were receiving health and social care at the end of their lives on how services should be funded, and described their health-related expenditure. There was a gap between the health and social care system that older adults expected and what might be provided by a reformed welfare state at a time of financial stringencies. Participants expressed a belief in an earned entitlement to services funded from taxation, based on a broad sense of being a good citizen. Irrespective of social background, older people felt that those who could afford to pay for social care should do so. The sale of assets and the use of children's inheritance to fund care were widely perceived as unjust. The costs of living with illness were a burden, and families were filling many of the gaps left by welfare provision. People who had worked in low-wage occupations were most concerned to justify their acceptance of services, and distance themselves from what they described as welfare 'spongers' or 'layabouts.'
Source: Barbara Hanratty, Elizabeth Lowson, Louise Holmes, Gunn Grande, Julia Addington-Hall, Sheila Payne, and Jane Seymour, 'Funding health and social services for older people – a qualitative study of care recipients in the last year of life', Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Volume 105 Issue 5
Links: Article | RSM press release
Date: 2012-Dec
A report said that net public expenditure on social care and continuing healthcare for older people in England was projected to rise from £9.3 billion (0.74 per cent of national income) in 2010 to £12.7 billion (0.78 per cent of national income) in 2022, assuming that existing patterns of care and official population projections kept pace with expected demographic and unit cost pressures.
Source: Raphael Wittenberg, Bo Hu, Adelina Comas-Herrera, and Jose-Luis Fernandez, Care for Older People: Projected expenditure to 2022 on social care and continuing health care for England s older population, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Dec
The older people's watchdog for Wales said that there had been an improvement in how seriously the National Health Service and Welsh Government were taking the issue of dignity in care for older people in hospital: but there was no evidence yet of a significant improvement in the quality of care and patient experience.
Source: Dignified Care? One Year On – The experiences of older people in hospital in Wales, Older People s Commission for Wales
Links: Report | OPCW press release | Age Cymru press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that non-emergency surgery rates declined steadily as people aged, suggesting that many older people were being denies potentially life-saving treatment.
Source: Access All Ages: Assessing the impact of age on access to surgical treatment, Age UK/Royal College of Surgeons
Links: Report | Age UK press release | Labour Party press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Oct
A paper examined the health effects of retirement in Europe – both the impact of being retired and the effect of spending longer time in retirement. There was a robust, negative impact of being retired and spending longer time in retirement on self-assessed, general, mental, and physical health. Although the short-term health impact of retirement remained uncertain, the medium- to long-term effects appeared to be negative and economically large.
Source: Gabriel Sahlgren, Work til You Drop: Short- and longer-term health effects of retirement in Europe, Working Paper 928/2012, Research Institute of Industrial Economics (Stockholm)
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Oct
An article examined levels of depression among older people (aged 50 or older) with and without disabilities in west European countries. Older people with disabilities suffered higher levels of depression as compared with their non-disabled counterparts, especially among women. There were significant regional differences in the levels of depression found. Depression had important effects on the levels of well-being, employment, and income reported by older people, and disabled older people in particular.
Source: Ricardo Pagan-Rodriguez and Salvador Perez, 'Depression and self-reported disability among older people in western Europe', Journal of Aging and Health, Volume 24 Number 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
A study examined how people in England used publicly funded health and social care services during the previous months of their lives. It said that social care might prevent the need for hospital admission.
Source: Theo Georghiou, Sian Davies, Alisha Davies, and Martin Bardsley, Understanding Patterns of Health and Social Care at the End of Life, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report | Summary | Nuffield Trust press release | Labour Party press release | Marie Curie press release | RCN press release | Community Care report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Oct
An article examined factors that might predict a decline or an improvement in the self-rated health older adults (aged 50 or higher) in Europe. Female sex and higher educational attainment had a strong protective effect against decline in health. Worse health at baseline was an important predictor of subsequent decline, but later changes were even more important.
Source: Georgia Verropoulou, 'Determinants of change in self-rated health among older adults in Europe: a longitudinal perspective based on SHARE data', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that older people in Wales were missing out on the essential services they needed to recover after a stay in hospital because of confusion around what constituted reablement services.
Source: Ed Bridges and Vicki James, Getting Back on Your Feet: Reablement in Wales, WRVS
Links: Report | WRVS press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Aug
A think-tank report said that 7,000 fewer emergency hospital beds would be needed by the National Health Service if all areas of England achieved the rate of admission and average length of stay for over-65s as those with the lowest use. This equated to a potential opportunity to reduce the number of overnight stays by 2.3 million per year and to reinvest £462 million a year in community and primary care services.
Source: Candace Imison, Emmi Poteliakhoff, and James Thompson, Older People and Emergency Bed Use: Exploring variation, King s Fund
Links: Report | Kings Fund press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Aug
An article examined the causal relationship between health and social capital for older people in Europe. The effect of health on social capital appeared to be significantly higher than the social capital effect on health. The sub-population reaching the age of 50 in good health had a higher propensity to take part in social activities and to benefit from it. Conversely, the other part of the population, in poor health at 50, might see their health worsening faster because of the missing beneficial effect of social capital. Social capital might therefore be a potential vector of health inequalities for the older population.
Source: Nicolas Sirven and Thierry Debrand, 'Social capital and health of older Europeans: causal pathways and health inequalities', Social Science & Medicine, Volume 75 Issue 7
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jul
An article examined the proportion of older people in England who accessed hospital and social care services. Residents of care homes tended to use hospitals less frequently than people receiving home care.
Source: Martin Bardsley, Theo Georghiou, Ludovic Chassin, Geraint Lewis, Adam Steventon, and Jennifer Dixon, 'Overlap of hospital use and social care in older people in England', Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, Volume 17 Number 3
Links: Article | Abstract | Nuffield Trust press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Jul
An article examined variations in the use of preventive health services by people aged 50 and over in 14 European countries (including the United Kingdom). There were significant variations both within and between European countries. In all countries, higher-educated and higher-income groups used more preventive services. At the health system level, high public health expenditures and high family doctor density were associated with a high level of preventive care use: but specialist density did not appear to have any effect. Payment schemes for family doctors and specialists appeared to significantly affect the incentives to provide preventive healthcare: in systems where doctors were paid by fee-for-service, the utilization of all health services, including cancer screening, was higher.
Source: Florence Jusot, Zeynep Or, and Nicolas Sirven, 'Variations in preventive care utilisation in Europe', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article examined the role of childhood conditions and social inequality in older Europeans' propensity to age successfully, controlling for later-life risk factors. Unfavourable childhood conditions exhibited a harmful influence on individuals' chances to age well across all European welfare states considered in the study. Policy interventions should thus aim at improving the conditions for successful ageing throughout the entire life course.
Source: Martina Brandt, Christian Deindl, and Karsten Hank, 'Tracing the origins of successful aging: the role of childhood conditions and social inequality in explaining later life health', Social Science & Medicine, Volume 74 Issue 9
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Apr
A think-tank report highlighted the way in which frail older people were being exposed to unacceptable standards of care and 'moved around from pillar to post' in hospital because of a lack of continuity of care.
Source: Jocelyn Cornwell, Ros Levenson, Lara Sonola, and Emmi Poteliakhoff, Continuity of Care for Older Hospital Patients: A Call for Action, King s Fund
Links: Report | Kings Fund press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Mar
