Abstract:

Sociodemographic characteristics in later life are associated with differentials in both health status and the need for health and other services. An understanding of how sociodemographic changes affect both ageing individuals and the elderly population is therefore important for health care planning. Three aspects of this issue are considered. Changes in the demographic composition of the elderly population, including projected increases in the number of very old people and in the ratio of men to women, are discussed in the first section. The second section based on longitudinal data, concerns sociodemographic differentials in age-related household changes, and shows that, for example, both housing tenure and density of the local elderly population seem to be associated with differentials in the probability of moving into an institution. In the third section possible influences on the supply of informal support are considered. At the moment there is no evidence that working women or the divorced are less likely than others to live with an elderly parent (including an elderly parent they care for), but further work in this area is needed.