{"title":"Older Women Living Alone in the UK: Does Their Health and Wellbeing Differ from Those Who Cohabit?","authors":"Catherine Forward, Hafiz T A Khan, Pauline Fox","doi":"10.1007/s12062-021-09344-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With an increased prevalence of people living alone in later life, understanding the health and wellbeing of older women living alone in the UK is an important area of research. Little is known about health and wellbeing in this population and whether they differ from those who cohabit. This paper fills this research gap. Analysis was undertaken of Wave 8 of the Understanding Society Household Panel Survey, including variables such as internet use and volunteering. Differences were found between those who live alone and cohabit. Volunteering was a predictor of better health outcomes for those who lived alone but not for those who cohabit, despite similar rates of volunteering. Internet use predicted some better health outcome for those who cohabit but poorer for those who live alone. This suggests lifestyle factors vary in how they affect the health and wellbeing of older women, depending on cohabitation status.</p>","PeriodicalId":45874,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Population Ageing","volume":"16 1","pages":"103-119"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8349464/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Population Ageing","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-021-09344-4","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2021/8/8 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"GERONTOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
With an increased prevalence of people living alone in later life, understanding the health and wellbeing of older women living alone in the UK is an important area of research. Little is known about health and wellbeing in this population and whether they differ from those who cohabit. This paper fills this research gap. Analysis was undertaken of Wave 8 of the Understanding Society Household Panel Survey, including variables such as internet use and volunteering. Differences were found between those who live alone and cohabit. Volunteering was a predictor of better health outcomes for those who lived alone but not for those who cohabit, despite similar rates of volunteering. Internet use predicted some better health outcome for those who cohabit but poorer for those who live alone. This suggests lifestyle factors vary in how they affect the health and wellbeing of older women, depending on cohabitation status.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Population Ageing examines the broad questions arising from global population ageing. It provides a forum for international cross-disciplinary debate on population ageing, focusing on theoretical and empirical research and methodological innovation and development.
This interdisciplinary journal publishes editorials, original peer reviewed articles, and subject and literature reviews. It offers high quality research of interest to those working in the fields of demography, bio-demography, development studies, area studies, sociology, geography, history, social gerontology, economics, and social and health policy.