As we embark upon the task of editing the seventeenth volume of Ageing and Society, we can draw upon the 8,600 pages of past editions, including well over 100 articles and 250 book reviews. In the context of this steadily growing body of learning, our aim is to sustain and develop the reputation of Ageing and Society as one of the foremost international academic journals in social gerontology.

The aim of the study reported here was to investigate the relationship between health and household composition among older people. The 1 per cent and 2 per cent SARs (Samples of Anonymised Records) drawn from 1991 British Census data were used to examine the frequency of a limiting long-term illness among older people according to different types of living arrangements. These data include the population in institutions and our results show that previous studies based only on the private household population have underestimated the prevalence of illness among older people. Long-term illness rates vary across family and household types, with higher frequencies found for those individuals not living in families (either alone or with others) or in lone parent families, compared with those living as part of a couple. Importantly, our results show a previously unreported clustering of long-term illness in households. Those over 45 suffering from a limiting long-term illness were more likely than those without such an illness, to live in households including others with long-term illness. These results indicate that health should be considered from a household, rather than just an individual, perspective. Our findings support those who have argued that families including an older ill member need more help from formal services. However, it is unlikely that this can be achieved solely by redeploying services from those living alone as long-term illness rates were also high in this group.

Lasting words can be defined as verbal messages that are remembered over many years and considered by the recipient to have had a significant influence on his/her life. The study of lasting words is proposed as a supplement to existing approaches to the older person as a communicator and, in particular, to intergenerational communication. A sample of 148 independent-living older adults was asked to share words that had made a lasting impression, and to indicate what lasting words they would like to impart to other people. Parents, teachers, and grandparents were the most common source-persons for the lasting words reported by the elders in this sample. Late childhood and youth were the time periods in which most lasting words were received. Statements of general moral principles and admonitions specific to the recipient were the most common types. Some older people, however, reported derogatory remarks that had remained with them throughout their lives. In passing lasting words on to others, no older people in this sample offered communications of a derogatory nature. The value of education and the importance of giving first priority to one's own family were the most frequent themes of lasting words they would pass on to the next generation. It would appear that attention needs to be given both to the theme and substance of the message, and the total context in which the messages are communicated. Limits of this preliminary study and implications for further research on intergenerational communication are discussed.

In response to recent community care policies in Britain, co-ordinated, needs-led models of care have been introduced into day care services for older people. Whilst their introduction has prompted detailed consideration of the changes required in the organisation and management of these services, less attention has been paid to their implications for the design of day care premises. Yet design factors impinge on all aspects of service delivery and any shortcomings in design may undermine the effective delivery of new models of care. This article uses findings from recent research to explore how design factors may facilitate or constrain service delivery, focusing on two aspects of the new models of care – that services should meet the needs of individual users and be locally-based.

The biology of ageing is finally becoming tractable science. After millennia of dead-ends and extravagant promises, we can now see our way to understanding the mechanisms of ageing. And there is now the genuine prospect of substantially intervening in the process so as to postpone it. These developments have taken place quite rapidly over the last twenty years, and may not be widely known. Here we introduce some of the basic features of this intellectual revolution, along with its more portentous implications for the human predicament. At the centre of this reformation has been evolutionary genetics. Mathematical research has revealed the evolutionary necessity of ageing in most organisms. Experimental research has shown that evolutionary forces readily alter patterns of ageing. The evolutionary research has been allied with genetic and molecular investigations as well, allowing a broad-based attack on the diverse problems of ageing. This attack has now penetrated far enough that the postponement of ageing has become a problem limited by ‘technological’ restraints rather than shortcomings in our general understanding of the process.

A geriatrician's perspective

The problem and its roots

Who shall have when all will die?

RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND SOCIETAL RESPONSES TO OLD AGE

Special Issue of Ageing and Society, Volume 15 part 2, June 1995

Commentaries:

1.) And a Few Pinches of Politics and Economics

2.) The case of Alzheimer disease

3.) Professional and political influence on resource allocation for older people

Reply to Commentaries:

Facts, Values, Ideologies and Ageing