Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T11:44:26.960Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Health and Well-being of Jewish People Aged 65 to 85 Years Living at Home in the East End of London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Ann Bowling  and
Morag Farquhar
Morag Farquhar
Affiliation:
Needs Assessment Unit, Departments of Public Health and General Practice and Primary Care, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, Charterhouse Square, London EC1.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Relatively little is known about what has been termed cultural gerontology, or the experience of ageing among members of particular ethnic minority groups. One of the greatest gaps in current knowledge relates to the subjective health status and use of health services among elderly people in ethnic minorities, particularly those who are Jewish. The research results reported here are from a survey of elderly people in City and Hackney, London, of whom 16% were Jewish. They show that Jewish respondents were more likely than other elderly people to report problems with emotional well-being, with mental and physical health and with functional ability (tasks of daily living). Jewish respondents were also more likely to use services, particularly health services, than other respondents. The associations with service use generally remained after health status had been controlled for.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 213 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1. Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Country of Birth. Great Britain. HMSO, London, 1983.Google Scholar

2. Fenton, C. S., Race, health and welfare. Afro-Caribbean and South Asian people in central Bristol – health and social services. University of Bristol, 1985.Google Scholar

3. Fenton, C. S., Ethnic minority populations in the United Kingdom. In Squires, A. J. (ed), Multicultural Health Care and Rehabilitation. Edward Arnold, London, 1991.Google Scholar

4. Young, J. and George, J., History of migration to the United Kingdom. In Squires, A. J. (ed), Multicultural Health Care and Rehabilitation. Edward Arnold, London, 1991.Google Scholar

5. Barker, J., Black and Asian Old People in Britain. Age Concern, Mitcham, England, 1984.Google Scholar

6. Norman, A., Triple Jeopardy: Growing Old in a Second Homeland. Centre for Policy on Ageing, London, 1985.Google Scholar

7. Gay, R., The Jews of Germany. Yale University Press, Yale, 1992.Google Scholar

8. Schweitzer, P., A place to stay: growing old away from home. In Squires, A. J. (ed), Multicultural Health Care and Rehabilitation. Edward Arnold, London, 1991.Google Scholar

9. Holzberg, C. S., Ethnicity and aging: anthropological perspectives on more than just the minority elderly. The Gerontologist, 12 (1982), 249–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Wirth, L., The problem of minority groups. In Linton, R. (ed), The Science of Man in the World Crisis. Columbia University Press, New York, 1945.Google Scholar

11. Rosenwaike, I., The Extreme Aged in America. A Portrait of an Expanding Population. Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1985.Google Scholar

12. Ball, R. A. and Clare, A., Symptoms and social adjustment to Jewish depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 156 (1990), 379–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. Moser, K. A., Fox, A. J., Jones, D. R. and Goldblatt, P. O., Unemployment and mortality: further evidence from the OPCS longitudinal study 1971–1981. The Lancet, i (1986), 365–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Townsend, P. and Davidson, N., Inequalities in Health. The Black Report. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1982.Google Scholar

15. Whitehead, M., The Health Divide: Inequalities in Health in the 1980s. Health Education Council, London, 1987.Google Scholar

16. Glendenning, F. and Pearson, M., The Black and Ethnic Minority Elders in Britain: Health Needs and Access to Services. Working papers on the health of older people No. 6. Health Education Authority in association with the Centre for Social Gerontology, University of Keele, 1988.Google Scholar

17. Pearson, M., Harrison, A. and Gretton, J. (eds), An insensitive service. In Harrison, A. and Gretton, J. (eds), Health Care UK: An Economic, Social and Policy Audit. Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, London, 1984.Google Scholar

18. Ebrahim, S., Patel, N., Coats, M., Greig, C. et al. , Prevalence and severity of morbidity among Gujarati Asian elders: a controlled comparison. Family Practice, 8 (1991), 57–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

19. Marmot, M. G., Adelstein, A. M. and Bulusu, L., Immigrant Mortality in England and Wales, 1970–78. Studies on Medical and Population Subjects, No. 47. HMSO, London, 1984.Google Scholar

20. Gibson, R. C., Age by race differences in the health and functioning of elderly persons. Journal of Aging and Health, 3 (1991), 335–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

21. Bhalla, A. and Blakemore, K., Elders of the Ethnic Minority Groups. All Faiths for One Race. AFFOR, Birmingham, 1981.Google Scholar

22. Brown, C., Black and White Britain: The Third PSI Survey. Gower, Aldershot, 1984.Google Scholar

23. Gerson, E. and Leibowitz, M., Socio-cultural and demographic correlates of affective disorders in Jerusalem. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12 (1975), 37–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. Gerson, E., Harrovit, J., Guraffe, E. et al. , A family study of schizoaffective bipolar I, unipolar and normal control probands. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39 (1982), 1157–1167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. Littlewood, R., From categories to contexts: a decade of the ‘new cross-cultural psychiatry’. British Journal of Psychiatry, 156 (1990), 308–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

26. Berry, S., Lee, M. and Griffiths, S., Report on a survey of West Indian pensioners in Nottingham. Nottingham Social Services Department (mimeo), 1981.Google Scholar

27. Jarman, Brian, Deprivation data: North East Thames Regional Health Authority. Department of General Practice, St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London, 1987.Google Scholar

28. Cartwright, A. and Anderson, R., General Practice Revisited. A Second Study of Patients and Their Doctors. Tavistock Publications, London, 1981.Google Scholar

29. Todd, J. and Butcher, R., Electoral Registration in 1981. Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, London, 1987.Google Scholar

30. Cartwright, A., Health Surveys. King's Fund, London, 1983.Google Scholar

31. Bowling, A., Measuring Health. A Review of Quality of Life Measurement Scales. Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1991.Google Scholar

32. Black, M., Health and social support in older adults in the community. Canadian Journal of Aging, 4 (1985), 213–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. Townsend, P., Poverty in Britain. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1979.Google Scholar

34. Hirsch, B. J., Natural support systems and coping with major life changes. American Journal of Community Psychology, 8 (1980), 159–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35. Stokes, J. P., Predicting satisfaction with social support from social network structure. American Journal of Community Psychology, 11 (1983), 141–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36. Goldberg, D. P., Manual of the General Health Questionnaire. NFER-Nelson, Windsor, 1972.Google Scholar

37. Goldberg, D. P. and Williams, P., A User's Guide to the General Health Questionnaire. NFER-Nelson, Windsor, 1988.Google Scholar

38. Bowling, A., The prevalence of psychiatric morbidity among people aged 85 and over living at home. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 25 (1990), 132–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

39. Andrews, F. M. and Withey, S. B., Social Indicators of Well-being – Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality. Plenum Press, New York, 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40. Neugarten, B. L., Havighurst, R. J. and Tobin, S. S., Measurement of life satisfaction. Journal of Gerontology, 16 (1961), 134–143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

41. Nie, H. H., Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Xth version). McGraw Hill Book Company, New York, 1983.Google Scholar

42. Bowling, A., Farquhar, M. and Browne, P., Life satisfaction and associations with social network and support variables in three samples of elderly people. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 6 (1991), 549–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43. Bowling, A. and Farquhar, M., Associations with social networks, social support, health status and psychiatric morbidity in three samples of elderly people. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 26 (1991), 115–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

44. Zborowski, M., Cultural components in response to pain. Journal of Social Issues, 8 (1958), 16–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45. Croog, S. H., Ethnic origins, educational level and responses to health questionnaires. Human Organisation, 20 (1961), 65–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46. Wolff, B. B. and Langley, S., Cultural factors and the response to pain. American Anthropologist, 70 (1968), 494–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. Mechanic, D., Response factors in illness: the study of illness behaviour. Social Psychiatry, 1 (1966), 11–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48. Zola, I. K., Pathways to the doctor – from person to patients. Social Science and Medicine, 7 (1973), 677–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. Barrabee, P. and Van Mering, O., Ethnic variations in mental stress in families with psychotic children. In Rose, A. M. (ed), Mental Health and Mental Disorder: A Sociological Approach. Horton, New York, 1955.Google Scholar

50. Sanua, V. D., Differences in personality adjustment among different generations of American Jews and non-Jews. In Opler, M. K. (ed), Culture and Mental Health. Macmillan, New York, 1959.Google Scholar

51. Rinder, I., Mental health of American and Jewish urbanites. Review of literature and predictions. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 9 (1963), 104–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

52. Fernando, S. J. M., A cross cultural study of some familial and social factors in depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127 (1975), 46–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53. Bart, P., Portnoy's mother's complaint: depression in middle aged women. In Koltun, E. (ed), The Jewish Woman. An Anthology. Schocken, New York, 1977.Google Scholar

54. Carmil, D. and Carel, R. S., Emotional distress and satisfaction in life among Holocaust survivors – a community study of survivors and controls. Psychological Medicine, 16 (1986), 141–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

55. Mechanic, D., Medical Sociology. The Free Press, New York, 1970.Google Scholar