The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has affected living standards around the world, and pandemic anxiety has changed social habits. In this context, this paper investigates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and quality of life, and assesses the mediating effect of loneliness on this relationship among a sample of older adults in Turkey. The study considers data from approximately 400 people, all of whom completed the CASP-19 Quality of Life Scale in Older People, the Loneliness Scale for the Elderly and the Fear of COVID-19 Scale. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed to confirm a one-factor structure for each instrument. Subsequently, mediation analysis, correcting for age as a continuous covariate, was performed to assess the nature of the relationship between fear and quality of life, and the extent to which that relationship is mediated by loneliness. Our study showed that there is a negative and direct relationship between loneliness and quality of life. Another important finding of our research is that fear of COVID-19 has a significant effect on loneliness. Finally, loneliness mediates the relation between fear of COVID-19 and quality of life. This finding strongly suggests that fear of COVID-19 influences quality of life via loneliness. This result is noteworthy, as we could not find any similar finding in the literature.

Health authorities worldwide address older adults as a risk group for more serious illness and health complications associated with COVID-19, while social gerontologists have warned that addressing older adults as a risk group of COVID-19 bears the risk of reinforcing ageism. This paper empirically explores to what extent older adults perceive themselves as part of a COVID-19 risk group and how these perceptions influence their everyday lives and experiences of age and ageing. This paper draws upon data from a mixed-methods study on older adults' risk perceptions during COVID-19 in Lower Austria, including a representative survey on 521 adults (60+ years) and data from 20 semi-structured interviews. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents consider themselves at risk of COVID-19 and name age, in addition to pre-existing illness, as a contributing factor in this risk perception. Older adults with health constraints, and especially older men, have a higher probability of perceiving risk due to COVID-19. Additionally, older adults report that they experience being ‘suddenly seen as old’ or ‘being put into a box’ during the pandemic, which influenced their experiences and images of ageing. Our study provides insights into how perceived COVID-19 risk affects the everyday lives of older adults. Age-based categorisations of risk contribute to a shift in images of age and ageing, drawing on insecurity and risk, rather than successful and active ageing, to conceptualise later life.

Little is known about the effects of informal care-giving on employees' absenteeism due to illness. This paper therefore provides a longitudinal analysis of the consequences of taking on informal care-giving for men's and women's working hours and workplace absenteeism due to illness. Data were taken from the Dutch Labour Supply Panel (waves 2004–2018); 495 of the 6,452 male observations in this panel and 696 of the 5,961 female observations had taken on informal care-giving. It was tested whether respondents who became (intensive) informal carers were more likely than respondents who remained non-care-givers to reduce their work hours or stop working between waves t and t1, or to be absent from work due to illness in wave t1. (Multinomial) logistic regression analyses showed that taking on informal care reduced women's working hours when the care they provided was intensive, but not men's. The predicted probability of women reducing their work hours was 12 per cent if they had remained non-care-givers between waves t and t1, 15 per cent if they had started giving non-intensive care and 19 per cent if they had begun providing intensive help. In addition, starting to provide (non-intensive) informal care increased the risk of workplace absenteeism among both women and men. The study highlights the need for workplace policies that prevent female carers from reducing their work hours, and enable male and female carers to continue working in a healthy way.

Ageing has become a ubiquitous concern in European policy. Critics have bemoaned that such policies are not so much about older people but rather about finding justification for other policy aims, such as economic growth or technological innovation. However, such critiques do not capture the co-constitutive relationship between ageing and innovation shaping one another. Using the example of the Silver Economy discourse, we show that ageing has not only been reframed under the imperatives of economic and innovation policies, but that ageing itself can also affect those policies. In its formative stages, the Silver Economy was characterised by a number of tensions between, on the one hand, common ageist assumptions about old age and, on the other hand, alternative visions of what ageing could mean as a policy field. However, these potentials have later been domesticated within the broader field of Active and Healthy Ageing. In this Forum Article, we therefore hypothesise what it would mean to take ageing more seriously as a driver of progressive politics as indicated in those formative years of the Silver Economy. Such a speculative take on current old-age policy, we hold, opens up a number of fruitful avenues and new interfaces between critical researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in driving progressive politics.

Organisational priorities for health care focus on efficiency as the health and care needs of populations increase. But evidence suggests that excessive planning can be counterproductive, leading to resistance from staff and patients, particularly those living with cognitive impairment. The current paper adds to this debate reporting an Institutional Ethnography of staff delivering care for older patients with cognitive impairment on acute orthopaedic wards in three National Health Service hospitals in the United Kingdom. A key problematic identified in this study is the point of disjuncture seen between the actualities of staff experience and intentions of protocols and policies. We identified three forms of disjuncture typified as: ‘disruptions’, where sequenced care was interrupted by patient events; ‘discontinuities’, where divisions in professional culture, space or time interrupted sequenced tasks; and ‘dispersions’, where displaced objects or people interrupted sequenced care flow. Arguably disruption is an integral characteristic of care work; it follows that to enable staff to flourish, organisations need to confer staff the autonomy to address systemic disruptions rather than attempt to eradicate them. Ultimately, organisational representations of ‘good practice’ as readily joined up, impose a care standard ‘stereotype’ that obscures rather than clarifies the interactional problems encountered by staff.

More people are working into older age, raising questions about how many hours they can work before their health becomes compromised. This paper models work-hour tipping points for mental health and vitality among older Australian workers aged 50–70 years. We use longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, 2005–2016 (about 44,900 observations), and bootstrapping Three Stage Least Squares (3SLS) estimation techniques to adjust for reverse and reciprocal relationships between wages, work hours and health. Our approach corrects for heteroscedasticity in the system equation error terms, and we estimate models on the relatively healthy older adults who have remained employed into older age. Among these older workers we observe weekly thresholds of 39–40 hours beyond which mental health and vitality decline. This average, however, hides variability in work-hour limits linked to overall health and occupation. Thus, weekly tipping points for blue- and pink-collar jobs are 7–9 hours lower compared to white-collar jobs, and even wider gaps (11 hours) are apparent for workers with poorer physical functioning, which becomes common as people age. Our modelling reveals that age is not the biggest limiting factor for how many hours older adults can work, rather their health and the types of jobs are critical, and likely widen the gap in who ages successfully or not.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on societies and individual lives across the globe. In this paper, we address the impact of the pandemic and the protective measures on empirical social scientific ageing research through the lens of ‘ethically important moments’. One of the most crucial measures for preventing the spread of the virus includes social distancing; therefore, empirical research methods based on person-to-person direct contact (as in interviews) and first-hand observation have been scaled back since 2020. For ageing research, the challenges are particularly pronounced due to the ongoing discussion regarding vulnerabilities associated with higher age and age-based discrimination. Hence, many researchers focusing on ageing are facing some difficult questions: How and under what conditions can we carry on with empirical research without putting our research participants and ourselves at risk? Firstly, we systematically identify the key dimensions and challenges that have shaped social scientific research during the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: fragmentation, fluidity, ambiguity and uncertainty. Then, using insights from two international research projects, we illustrate and critically reflect on the ethically important moments and practical dilemmas that have resulted from these pandemic challenges when researching with and about older adults.

Involuntary retirement is associated with diminished mental health. However, little is known about the mechanism that connects involuntary retirees' coping resources to their loneliness. Gender patterns in the mechanism of involuntary retirement are also unclear. This study examines gender differences in the link between involuntary retirement and loneliness through secondary stressors (material and physical vulnerability) and coping resources (social support and self-efficacy). Two-step structural equation modelling was used to examine the effects of several mediators. For both men and women, involuntary retirement was associated with increased loneliness in terms of physical vulnerability and social efficacy. We found the female involuntary retirees are facing loneliness with multiple mediating factors. The layers of experiencing loneliness among female retirees are (a) directly from involuntary retirement; (b) indirectly from involuntary retirement and secondary stressors (material vulnerability and physical vulnerability); and (c) indirectly from involuntary retirement, secondary stressors (material vulnerability and physical vulnerability) and coping resources. The specific gender differences in the complex mechanism leading to later-year loneliness among the retirees may inform the interventions and policies that mitigate the disadvantages among involuntarily retired older adults in the United States of America.

Cowgill's modernisation theory stipulates that older people's social status is lower in societies with higher societal modernisation. The few existing studies reveal conflicting results showing either negative or positive associations. The current study follows up seminal cross-national research on the perceived social status of people in their seventies (PSS70) in a diverse set of countries. PSS70 was defined as the relative status of people in their seventies compared to people in their forties. Data were obtained by the World Values Survey (2010–2014) and included 78,904 respondents from 58 countries. Multilevel regressions showed that the level of modernisation had a strong and negative association with the PSS70 but mostly due to one component, namely the share of older people in society. The associations were more complex when considering cultural zones of which two stood out. Irrespective of level of modernisation, Muslim countries showed higher and post-communist countries showed lower levels of PSS70. In Muslim countries, modernisation had a near-zero association with PSS70, whereas it was strongly negatively associated with PSS70 in post-communist countries. This study generally supports Cowgill's theory in a large and diverse cross-sectional sample of countries, yet it also illustrates its cultural boundary conditions.

In most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the government has to manage tension between growth in the need for long-term care (LTC) services for older people and significant public budget constraints. Not surprisingly, therefore, cost-containment policies are of increasing relevance. Nevertheless, despite the flourishing interest in the comparative literature in reforms and the sustainability of LTC policies, a scoping review of these measures has so far not been produced. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap. We present a typology of LTC cost-containment policies across the OECD. Cost-containment policies cluster in two areas according to their focus: demand-side policies, which reduce the actual chances of receiving LTC services and/or make them more expensive for users; and supply-side ones, which modify the provision of services. Furthermore, an indirect outcome of the review is that it allows an overview of potential negative implications of these policies. These negative implications can be grouped in two macro spheres relating to a worsening of the care arrangements for beneficiaries and to increased demand for individual/family resources, in both economic and time and effort terms. In the light of the expected profound impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on all social security sectors in the medium and long term, this article provides a valuable tool for both academic and policy-making debate. It allows an analytical comprehension of cost-containment strategies adopted in LTC sectors linking them with the related impacts on beneficiaries and their families.

Although the literature on informal care-giving for older parents shows that daughters have a higher tendency to provide care compared with sons, only a few studies have focused on the gender composition of all children or parents’ entire range of care options. Our study examines the effect of children's gender composition on informal and formal care types, as well as the informal care network. Using data from the 2015 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N = 40,312), we found that parents with daughters tended to use less formal care because daughters take on additional informal care-giving responsibilities. Daughters were the main care-givers among parents’ informal care networks. Further analysis indicated that daughters-in-law play an important role in the care-giving process when parents have only sons. We concluded that the presence of a daughter among the children reduces the use of formal care. The results indicated that children's gender composition is an important factor in explaining the allocation of informal care to parents.

Self-integrity plays a vital role in the psychological wellbeing of older adults. The present study investigated whether or not the confrontation with negative, self-stereotyped information leads to a deterioration of older adults' self-integrity. Additionally, the current study attempted to examine the mediating effects of sense of coherence and empathy on the relationship between self-stereotype and self-integrity. A total of 825 Chinese older adults aged 55 or above from Xi'an and Beijing were recruited as research participants. A self-stereotype scale, sense of coherence scale, interpersonal reactivity index and self-integrity scale were used. Results showed that self-stereotypes are negatively associated with sense of coherence, empathy and self-integrity. Furthermore, sense of coherence and empathy are positively associated with self-integrity and played important roles in mediating the relationship between self-stereotype and self-integrity. Findings of this study can contribute to an improved understanding of the mechanism of associations between self-stereotype and self-integrity in older adults. Lastly, results obtained can provide guidance for effectively improving older adults' self-integrity to limit the negative effects of self-stereotypes.

Emphasis placed on Xiao (孝; filial piety) in Chinese culture highlights parents' investment in their children with the expectation of being cared for when older. An increasing number of Chinese students come to the United Kingdom (UK) to study, with the majority returning home and likely to become future care-givers for their parents. Little attention has been paid to the implications of transnational mobility of Chinese students on the reciprocal aspects of future care responsibility. With the uniquely changing family structure due to consequences of the One-Child Policy, we conducted proactive research on the opportunities and challenges that Chinese transnational students anticipate they may face in future care-giving for elderly parents. Hence, this study's aim was to make a novel contribution to knowledge through exploration of the perspectives of Chinese students in England on intergenerational ties and filial obligations. Adopting a social constructivist philosophical position, we conducted three focus groups with 19 UK-based Chinese students, using a semi-structured topic guide with informed consent. Interviews were translated, transcribed and analysed using reflective thematic analysis, capturing semantic and latent meanings, and employed a descriptive and interpretative approach. Six themes were discovered, revealing a ‘culture of duty’ where familial obligation and societal expectations were prominent. Prospective care-givers anticipated a future dilemma between balancing work commitments and providing care as mandated by Xiao. Furthermore, it appeared that lack of preparedness might further exacerbate barriers faced when accessing support. We surmised that the changing demographics and absence of formal support could compound stressors over time, especially if cognitive dissonance arises as realities of life do not fit with societal expectations. Our findings imply that policy makers, practitioners and the government will need to adequately support prospective family care-givers who are returnees in caring for older generations.

Whilst ageing in place is integral to international policy, there is less understanding of how individuals utilise formal services and informal supports in diverse rural environments to maintain their wellness and independence. Consequently, how older people negotiate their care within rural communities is subject to misconceptions. This paper draws on the convoy of care model to explore how older rural Australians negotiate their preferences and needs in the context of informal networks, availability of community resources, and the health and aged care system. The analysis draws on 60 in-depth interviews in six diverse rural communities across two Australian states. Three distinct care convoys are identified and demonstrate the interaction of multiple factors including individual preferences and needs, availability of family and community supports, and accessibility of local health and aged care services in the context of resource allocation. The findings highlight how families and communities compensate for a lack of accessible formal services. For older people without family and strong social networks, formal services are relied upon despite their inadequacy in some locales. This research has provided evidence that some Australian rural locales have limited resources resulting in challenges for older people to access home care and support. This results in many older people facing challenges to age in place. With aged care and health policy commonly designed for an urban context, our findings illustrate the importance of tailoring policy to respect the strengths and challenges existing in rural communities.

Participation in social activities might increase older adults’ chances to interact with other people and has been found to be important in reducing the likelihood of depression. A picture of older adults’ attitudes towards ageing and their self-esteem constructed through the lens of how they interact with other people might cast light on the sources of older adults’ depression. This study explored the influences of social participation and attitudes towards ageing on depression of Chinese older adults. Using two waves data from the China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey (CLASS) in 2014 and 2016 (6,908 participants in 2014 and 3,477 participants in both 2014 and 2016), we found that social participation in 2014 could prevent the risk of depression in both the 2014 and 2016 cohorts. In addition, both psychosocial loss and psychosocial growth in 2014 were negatively associated with depression in both 2014 and 2016. However, there was no evidence that social participation moderated the relationship between attitudes towards ageing and depression in either cohort. Social policies need to encourage older adults’ conversion from ‘passive participation’ to ‘active participation’. This could help older adults understand the process of ageing and their value to society, as well as have positive effects on older adults’ mental health.

There is a growing evidence base that identifying positive experiences in providing care can have a beneficial influence on carer wellbeing. However, there is a need to better understand what carers identify as the positive aspects of care-giving. The aim of this study is to explore the satisfying aspects of providing care to people with dementia. This study utilised Time 1 data from 1,277 carers of people in the mild-to-moderate stages of dementia taking part in the IDEAL (Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life) cohort study. Responses from 900 carers who answered the open-ended question ‘What is your greatest satisfaction in caring for your relative/friend?’ were analysed using thematic analysis. From the responses, 839 carers detailed satisfactions. Eight themes were identified, pertaining to three groups of beneficiaries: carers, people with dementia and the dyad. Perceived benefits for carers included identifying aspects of personal growth, seeing glimpses of the person, feeling they were making a difference and doing their duty. For the person with dementia, these included retaining independence, receiving good quality care and being happy. Dyadic benefits concerned the continuation of the relationship between carer and person with dementia. The findings highlight the need to take a dyadic approach when conceptualising positive experiences in providing care. Further research is needed to understand the role these positive experiences play and to develop interventions. Professionals working with carers should identify and validate these experiences.

To create environments conducive to the wellbeing of workers, especially older workers, it is important to gain insight into ageism among young workers as a distinct segment in the workplace. However, this ageism remains unclear. This study explored the psychosocial predictors of discrimination against older Japanese workers by their younger male counterparts. Four models – Intergroup Contact Theory (ICT), Knowledge–Attitude–Behaviour Model (KABM), Terror Management Theory (TMT) and Frustration–Aggression Theory (FAT) – formed the basis of the study. All the models included positive and negative dimensions of stereotypes as mediators between predictors and discrimination. Data from 874 participants were obtained through a voluntary web survey for employees aged 25–39 years who lived in the Tokyo metropolitan area. A scale describing interactions with older workers (supportive, uncomfortable and avoidance), Facts on Ageing quiz, fears of being an older worker and a job dissatisfaction survey were employed to examine the hypotheses based on the above theories. The results supported the hypotheses based on ICT and FAT but not KABM. Higher supportive contacts were significantly related to lower discrimination mediated by a higher positive and lower negative dimension of stereotypes. Contacts characterised by higher discomfort were significantly related to higher discrimination mediated by a lower positive and higher negative dimension of stereotypes. Higher job dissatisfaction was related to higher discrimination mediated by lower positive stereotypes. Interestingly, higher fear of being an older worker was significantly related to lower discrimination mediated by higher positive stereotypes, contrary to the TMT-based hypotheses. Thus, ICT and FAT regarding ageism can explain young male workers’ discrimination against older workers in Japan, which differs culturally from Western countries. Furthermore, the results of the study suggest that boosting the quality of interactions as well as reducing bad interactions with older workers contribute to lower discrimination.

Falls in older adulthood can have serious consequences. It is therefore important to identify ways to prevent falls, particularly from the voice of older adults. Bottom-up qualitative exploration of the perspectives of older adults can provide rich insights that can help inform the development of effective fall prevention programmes. However, currently there is a dearth of such empirical data, especially among urban-dwelling older adults in high-density cities where fall rates are high. The current study aimed to examine qualitatively perceptions of neighbourhood physical environment in relation to falls, perceived risks and fear of falling, and strategies and behaviours for fall prevention in a sample of urban-dwelling older adults in the high-density city of Hong Kong. Face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 50 community-dwelling older adults. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis techniques. Five general themes were revealed: risks and circumstances of falls, consequences of falls, fear of falling and its consequences, neighbourhood environment, and strategies and behaviours of fall prevention. While older adults discussed the risks of falling and held a fear of falling, these beliefs were mixed. In addition to fall prevention strategies (e.g. keep balance), current findings highlighted the importance of establishing protective factors (e.g. flat and even walking paths) and reducing risk factors (e.g. neighbourhood clutter) in neighbourhood environments. For urban-dwelling older adults in high-density cities, current findings highlight the importance of focusing efforts at the built environment level in addition to strategies and behaviours of fall prevention at the individual level.

Meeting individuals' social care needs is a core element of UK social policy. However, the conceptualisation and operationalisation of ‘unmet need’ remain a challenge. This paper advances our understanding by incorporating a temporal dimension into the conceptual framework on unmet need to investigate the dynamics of met and unmet need for social care over time. Using data from Waves 8 and 9 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this paper examines five possible trajectories among individuals with a social care need for bathing or dressing at baseline: (a) no longer having such a need; (b) having continued needs met; (c) delayed needs met; (d) newly arisen unmet needs; and (e) repeated unmet needs. The results indicate that amongst those with need at baseline, unmet need has decreased over time – indicating that some needs for social care may be fulfilled with a delay. However, a significant proportion of older people experienced repeated unmet needs, particularly those who were younger, with no spouse or civil partner, and those whose activities of daily living index scores worsened over time. Understanding the dynamics of unmet need can support policy makers in better ensuring that those facing an elevated risk of repeated unmet need over time do not fall through the social care safety net.

Previous research has found varied effects of informal care provision on the carer's health status. Few studies have, however, examined this relationship dynamically. This paper is the first to analyse trajectories of care among men and women in mid-life and their impact on health outcomes using a nationally representative prospective cohort study. Data from three waves of the United Kingdom (UK) National Child Development Study (N = 7,465), when the respondents were aged 46, 50 and 55, are used to derive care trajectories capturing the dynamics of care provision and its intensity. Logistic regression investigates the impact of caring between the ages of 46 and 55 on the carers' report of depression and poor health at age 55. At age 46, 9 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women provided some level of informal care; rising to 60 per cent for both genders at ages 50 and 55. Just 7 per cent of women and 4 per cent of men provided care at all observation points, with the most common trajectory being ‘starting to care’ at ages 50 or 55. New carers experienced a lower risk of depression at age 55, reflecting that they may not have experienced the caring role long enough to have an adverse impact on their wellbeing. The findings highlight that the majority of individuals with surviving parents experience caring at some point during mid-life, underlining the need for further longitudinal research to better understand the complex relationships between care-giving and health for different groups of cares.