November 2022

Climate change poses a threat to health equality in the UK: The Longevity Science Panel report

The Longevity Science Panel, in collaboration with L&G, today publish a report analysing the current and future impacts of climate change on the UK's health. The research reveals that climate change will be experienced unevenly across different sections of the UK population, and may deepen health inequalities in physical and mental health in the UK. The report titled, The Effects of Climate Change on Health in the UK, shows that the most economically deprived and those who are already frail...

October 2022

The anxieties of growing old when you’re LGBTQ

Who would you call to bring you chicken soup? For many LGBTQ seniors who are alone, that’s no easy question. Who would bring you chicken soup if you were sick? For most people of a certain age, that’s easy — a spouse or an adult child would step up. For many LGBTQ people, however, it’s not a simple question at all. “Many [would] have to think really hard about this,” said Imani Woody, an academic and community advocate who retired from AARP...

Exercise Can Slow the Ageing Process

The tradition of sending a telegram to every British citizen on their 100th birthday was started just over 100 years ago by George V, who sent out just nine letters. Last year, the Queen had to sign over 16,000 birthday letters. The UK has an ageing society, with falling birth rates and increasing life expectancy. Improvements in public health and medicine have helped to achieve this amazing effect on lifespan. But for far too many, old age is endured and...

September 2022

US. Why Intelligent Aging Should Be Healthcare’s Moonshot

Tom Lawry is the National Director for Artificial Intelligence, Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft. “It’s not how old you are, it’s how you are old.” – Jules Renard, French author. It was the summer of 1965 when Medicare was signed into law, guaranteeing that the federal government would manage the provision and cost of medical care for all seniors. In doing so, President Lyndon Johnson proudly declared: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine....

Depression and Loneliness Among the Elderly Poor

By Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Erin Grela, Madeline McKelway, Frank Schilbach, Garima Sharma & Girija Vaidyanathan The mental health of the elderly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is a largely neglected subject, both by policy and research. We combine data from the health and retirement family of surveys in seven LMICs (plus the US) to document that depressive symptoms among those aged 55 and above are more prevalent in those countries and increase sharply with age. Depressive symptoms in...

The Impact of Health on Wealth: Empirical Evidence

By Umesh Ghimire This paper empirically evaluates the impact of health on wealth among adults between the ages of 50 and 100 in the United States. Using the frailty index to measure health status and carefully accounting for the dynamic relationship between frailty and wealth, I find that suffering one more health deficit leads, on average, to approximately 2.23 percent decline in the net worth of American households. The impact is concentrated among individuals over the age of 70, in...

August 2022

The Health and Retirement Study. Aging in the 21st Century. Challenges and Opportunities for Americans

By Survey Research Center. Institute for Social Research University of Michigan Published in 2006, the first HRS data book sought to introduce the world to the HRS by describing the study’s innovative design and content and providing some early findings within the main content areas of health, work and retirement, income and wealth, and family connections. In the decade since, the HRS has built on its foundation of innovation, pioneering in new directions and increasing the data’s value and relevance. The...

Recessions and Retirement: New Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Courtney Coile & Haiyi Zhang The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the US labor market, leading to an unprecedented loss of 22 million jobs in March and April 2020. Evidence from past recessions indicates that economic downturns are typically associated with an increase in retirements. In this study, we revisit the relationship between recessions and retirement in the COVID-19 era, using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) supplemented by other data on economic and COVID conditions. We find that higher...

June 2022

Vanderbilt University Launches Study on LGBTQ+ Aging, Health Disparities

Researchers have launched a four-year longitudinal study of older LGBTQ+ people in the South to better understand aging and health disparities in the community. A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University has announced the first-ever longitudinal study of LGBTQ+ aging to better understand stress, resilience, and health disparities in this infrequently studied population. The effort, known as the Vanderbilt University Social Networks, Aging, and Policy Study (VUSNAPS), is entirely comprised of LGBTQ+ people, including older LGBTQ, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming adults....

Are You Setting Yourself Up For Unhealthy Aging?

Health experts anywhere, including those in the Federal government tell us we need to move more, sit less and eat a healthy diet, especially as we age. Yet, the majority of adults over 65 aren’t following these guidelines. What’s stopping ordinary folks from following this advice? Over half of American seniors are not getting the recommended 150 minutes a week of aerobic exercise. 150 minutes can mean walking briskly for 30 minutes five days a week. One can cut...