Earlier research on residential mobility has demonstrated a tendency for the young old of the 55+ population to prefer peripheral locations, whereas older age groups choose central locations. Here, we present survey results indicating that such late-adulthood differences in preferences are supported by age-related shifts corresponding to differences in housing preferences expressed by individuals in peripheral as well as central locations in Sweden. A sample of 2,400 individuals aged 55 years and over was asked to select the seven most important characteristics of a dwelling from a list of 21 alternatives (Survey of Housing Intentions among the ELDerly in Sweden (SHIELD), 2013). The preferences expressed were used as dependent variables in logistic regressions to determine to what extent the housing preferences of older people are linked to age, gender, socio-economic status and type of geographical area. The results demonstrated a close link between neighbourhood characteristics and housing preferences. Owning the dwelling, having a garden and access to nature were stressed as important by individuals living in non-metropolitan middle-class areas and in suburban elite areas. The youngest cohort expressed similar preferences. Older age groups instead stressed the importance of an elevator, single-storey housing and a good design for independent living; preferences that have similarities to those expressed by individuals living in large cities and smaller urban centres where such housing is more readily available.

The Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) group is a consortium of eight longitudinal twin studies established to explore the nature of social context effects and gene-environment interplay in late-life functioning. The resulting analysis of the combined data from over 17,500 participants aged 25–102 at baseline (including nearly 2,600 monogygotic and 4,300 dizygotic twin pairs and over 1,700 family members) aims to understand why early life adversity, and social factors such as isolation and loneliness, are associated with diverse outcomes including mortality, physical functioning (health, functional ability), and psychological functioning (well-being, cognition), particularly in later life.

Given its relative ethnic and socio-economic homogeneity, Sweden is an ideal nation for the study of variations in formal and informal care as a function of gender, disability and advanced age. This paper reports an analysis of the relationships between gender, disability and age and the formal care delivered to more than 1,200 people aged 75 or more years in Sweden in 1994 and 2000. In municipalities that provided above-average home-help hours per recipient, and that had high institutional placement rates, women were relatively less likely to have been receiving informal assistance alone, those with greater disability were more likely to have been receiving all forms of assistance, the oldest-old were less likely to have been receiving either informal or formal help alone, and rates of formal assistance and of no informal care were relatively low. In municipalities with high rates of institutional placement, the oldest-old were relatively more likely to have been receiving both formal and informal assistance. Sweden's system of old-age care appears broadly equitable although the quality of care could not be fully assessed. Although home and community-based service provision (HCBS) has recently decreased, variations in the volume and mix of delivered formal services reflect differences in need.

Old-age care has frequently been conceptualised as being either family-based or publicly-provided. This article analyses the overlap in provision from the two sources and their relationship in the Swedish welfare state. Many older people and their carers rely on both sources of help rather than on just one, and prefer to do so. The empirical evidence on patterns of care in Sweden supports a joint family-state conceptualisation of care. Its realisation may depend on general coverage rates of public services and the efficient targeting of frail elderly people who live alone. Most older people in need of care rely on help only from their family, but many are helped by both the family and the state, particularly those with the greatest needs. Dynamic concepts like ‘substitution’ and ‘complementarity’ are hard to apply in cross-sectional studies: there may be complementarity in individual cases but long-term substitution or its reversal in successive cohorts. Yet again, both sources of care may increase simultaneously in individual cases. The need for care varies considerably among Swedish municipalities, with implications for the levels of both public services and family support. High coverage rates of the public services may facilitate and support family care.