Health

Is use of the internet in midlife associated with lower dementia incidence? Results from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Association of social support and cognitive aging modified by sex and relationship type: a prospective investigation in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Well-being and arthritis incidence: the role of inflammatory mechanisms. Findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

This briefing note reviews the evidence on the long-run pressures faced by maternity units from changes in the number of maternity admissions and the case mix.

The structure of this paper is as follows: Section 2 gives the background to the study and discusses some of the existing literature. We set out our methodology in Section 3, where we present an approach for comparing individual and county-level business cycle estimates. We describe the data in Section 4. The results are presented in Section 5. Section 6 concludes.

We study whether and how individuals protect energy intakes against income shocks and we find that households use substitution, both between and within spending categories. Total nutritional intakes are almost fully protected against income shocks and 12-16% of permanent income shocks on food spending is transmitted to energy intake.

Sleep problems, short sleep and a combination of both increase the risk of depressive symptoms in older people: a 6-year follow-up investigation from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Does public transport use prevent declines in walking speed among older adults living in England? A prospective cohort study

This working paper looks at the impact of health on labor supply near retirement.

Repeated exposure to systemic inflammation and risk of new depressive symptoms among older adults

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether hearing loss is associated with incident physician-diagnosed dementia in a representative sample.

BACKGROUND: Frailty is a common syndrome in older adults characterised by increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes as a result of decline in functional and physiological measures. Frailty predicts a range of poor health and social outcomes and is associated with increased risk of hospital admission. The health benefits of sport and physical activity and the health risks of inactivity are well known. However, less is known about the role of sports clubs and physical activity in preventing and managing frailty in older adults. The objective of this study is to examine the role of membership of sports clubs in promoting physical activity and reducing levels of frailty in older adults.

Pedestrian crossings in the UK and US require people to walk at 1.2 m/s to cross the road in time; however a large proportion of older people do not walk this fast, potentially discouraging walking or putting older people at risk of injury. We use longitudinal data to investigate changes in walking speed, and ability to cross the road in time, at older ages. 31,015 walking speed measurements were taken from 10,249 men and women aged 60+ years in waves 1-7 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2002-2014). Growth curve analyses were used to model how walking speed changes with increasing age, and predicted probabilities of being able to cross the road in time were estimated. 10% of measured walking speeds were fast enough to cross the road in time. Walking speed declined with age (-5.7×10-3m/s/yr (95% CI -7.6×10-3, -3.9×10-3)), and the decline accelerated with increasing age (-0.3 ×10-3m/s/yr (-0.4 ×10-3, -0.3 ×10-3)). Female, less wealthy and less healthy older people had slower walking speeds. For instance, predicted probability of crossing the road in time at age 60 was 14.8% (10.1, 18.5) and 2.7% (1.5, 3.8) for the richest and poorest men and 8.4% (6.0, 1.1) and 1.5% (0.9, 2.2) for the richest and poorest women, and at age 80 they were 7.1% (3.6, 10.5) and 1.0% (0.3, 1.7) for the richest and poorest men and 3.7% (1.6, 5.9) and 0.5% (0.1, 0.9) for the richest and poorest women. Most older people do not walk fast enough to cross the road in time. Even the majority of the wealthiest and healthiest people aged 60 years and older do not walk fast enough to cross pedestrian crossings in the allocated time. Crossing times should be increased to allow for older peoples' slower walking speeds or other policies considered to improve walkability, and to help avoid injuries and social isolation.

AIMS: To validate the Leicester Self-Assessment score using a representative English dataset for detecting prevalent non-diabetic hyperglycaemia or undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes (defined as HbA1c ≥6.0%) and for identifying those who may go on to develop Type 2 diabetes within 10 years. METHODS: Data were taken from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a nationally representative dataset of people aged ≥50 years. The area under the receiver-operator curve and performance metrics for the score at the recommended score threshold (≥16), were calculated for the outcomes of HbA1c ≥42 mmol/mol (6.0%) at baseline and self-reported Type 2 diabetes within 10 years in those aged 50-75 years at baseline. RESULTS: A total of 3203 individuals had a baseline HbA1c measurement, of whom 247 (7.7%) had an HbA1c concentration ≥ 42 mmol/mol (6.0%). The area under the receiver-operator curve was 69.4% (95% CI 66.0-72.9) for baseline HbA1c ≥42 mmol/mol. A total of 3550 individuals had diabetes status recorded at 10 years, of whom 324 (9.1%) were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes within this time; the area under the receiver-operator curve for this outcome was 74.9% (95% CI 72.4-77.5). The score threshold of ≥16 had a sensitivity of 89.2% (95% CI 85.3-92.4) and a specificity of 42.3% (95% CI 40.5-44.0) for Type 2 diabetes within 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: The Leicester Self-Assessment score is validated for use across England to identify people with non-diabetic hyperglycaemia or undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes. Those with a high score are at high risk of developing diabetes in the future. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Cancer and heart attack survivors’ expectations of employment status: results from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

BACKGROUND: Depression independently increases the risk of falls in older people, but the mechanism for this relationship, as well as the specific falls type involved, remains unclear. Accidental falls (AFs) are due to slips or trips, while the cause of unexplained falls (UFs) is not immediately apparent and can include unrecognised syncope.

In this review, we survey the economic literature on the health–retirement link in developed countries.