Moves into Supported Private Households among Elderly People in England and Wales

Abstract

Data from the Longitudinal Study (LS) of the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys have been used to examine differentials in the proportion of elderly people living in ‘independent’ households (alone or with only a spouse) in 1971 but in ‘supported’ households (with relatives or friends) ten years later. Overall, 6% of men and 8% of women aged 65 years or over in 1971 and then in independent households were by 1981 living in a supported private household, slightly higher than the proportion who had moved into institutions. Children predominated among the coresidents of elderly people in supported households. Rates of transition to supported private households were higher in older age-groups, higher among the widowed than the currently or never-married, and, in general, higher for owner-occupiers and private renters than for local authority tenants. Elderly people living in Wales in 1971 were more likely to be in supported households ten years later than their counterparts in England. Transitions to supported households were strongly associated with geographic mobility. Among elderly people aged 75 years or over and in independent households in 1971 over half of those living at a different address in 1981 were by then in supported private households or institutions. LS members who moved from independent to supported private households between 1971 and 1981 had an elevated mortality rate, observed over the period 1981–85. However, the mortality of those who had moved to institutions was even higher, suggesting that in terms of health status the elderly population living with relatives is not equivalent to the institutional population.