Dataset Information

Health and social exclusion in older age: evidence from Understanding Society, the UK household longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Social exclusion of the elderly is a key policy focus but evidence on the processes linking health and social exclusion is hampered by the variety of ways that health is used in social exclusion research. We investigated longitudinal associations between health and social exclusion using an analytical framework that did not conflate them. METHODS:Data employed in this study came from 4 waves of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2009-2013. The sample comprised all adults who took part in all 4 waves, were 65?years or more in Wave 3, and had complete data on our variables of interest for each analysis. We used linear regression to model the relationship between Wave 2/3 social exclusion and Wave1-2 health transitions (N=4312) and logistic regression to model the relationship between Wave2/3 social exclusion and Wave 4 health states, conditional on Wave 3 health (N=4244). RESULTS:There was a dose-response relationship between poor health in Waves 1 and 2 and later social exclusion. Use of a car, mobile phone and the internet moderated the association between poor health and social exclusion. Given the health status in Wave 3, those who were more socially excluded had poorer outcomes on each of the three domains of health in Wave 4. CONCLUSIONS:Use of the internet and technology protected older adults in poor health from social exclusion. Age-friendly hardware and software design might have public health benefits.

SUBMITTER: Sacker A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5485754 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Health and social exclusion in older age: evidence from Understanding Society, the UK household longitudinal study.

Sacker Amanda A Ross Andy A MacLeod Catherine A CA Netuveli Gopal G Windle Gill G

Journal of epidemiology and community health 20170222 7

<h4>Background</h4>Social exclusion of the elderly is a key policy focus but evidence on the processes linking health and social exclusion is hampered by the variety of ways that health is used in social exclusion research. We investigated longitudinal associations between health and social exclusion using an analytical framework that did not conflate them.<h4>Methods</h4>Data employed in this study came from 4 waves of Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2009-2013. The sa ...[more]

PMID: 28228466

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Project description:Overcrowding has been regarded as indicating material deprivation and treated as a proxy measure for individual socioeconomic status. Conventionally, 'persons per room' (PPR) has been employed to identify overcrowded households in UK survey data, though the 'bedroom standard' (BS) approach or the 'modified bedroom standard' (MBS) approach has been thought to capture overcrowded households better. Little is known about which overcrowding measure will perform well in regard to construct and face validity. In this work, associations between three overcrowding measures and socioeconomic (income and household tenure status) and health (satisfied with health and GHQ12) indicators were assessed, using the UK Household Longitudinal Study Wave 6 data. PPR, BS and MBS were derived using relevant housing grid information and housing information from the dataset, which were aggregated at a household level (N?=?18,848). Raw scores were categorised into 'under occupied (rooms?<?people)', 'balanced (rooms?=?people)', 'overcrowded (rooms?<?people)' according to an established cut-off point for each overcrowding measure. Kappa coefficient was used to assess the level of agreement between overcrowding measures. Construct validity of the measures were tested against log-transformed household equivalised income and housing tenure status as well as with each component of overcrowding measures. Using individual data (N?=?38,455), face validity of the overcrowding measures was tested against satisfaction with health and mental health indicated by GHQ12. Each overcrowding measure has a fair agreement with the others (kappa?=?0.44, p<0.001). All overcrowding measures were significantly correlated with income and household tenure in a similar manner. However, components of overcrowding measures were associated differently to these socioeconomic indicators, while they were better correlated with satisfaction with health compared to GHQ12, showing a complex aspect of overcrowding measures. In sum, use of PPR as a socioeconomic indicator is reasonable. However, given the complexity of the mechanism of health inequalities, the relevant household information is required to understand the link.

Dataset Information

Health and social exclusion in older age: evidence from Understanding Society, the UK household longitudinal study.

Publications

Health and social exclusion in older age: evidence from Understanding Society, the UK household longitudinal study.

Similar Datasets

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