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Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on October 30, 2008
Age and Ageing 2009 38(1):51-55; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn220
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Differentials in mortality up to 20 years after baseline interview among older people in East London and Essex

Ann Bowling1 and Emily Grundy2

1 Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, University College London, Hampstead Campus, London NW3 2PF, UK
2 Centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 49-51 Bedford Square, London WC1 3DP, UK

Address correspondence to: A. Bowling. Tel: (+44) 207 830 2239; Fax: (+44) 207 794 1224. Email: a.bowling{at}ucl.ac.uk

Objective: to identify socio-psychological predictors of mortality during a 20-year follow-up period among people aged 65 to <85 and 85+ at baseline interview.

Study design and setting: elderly people living at home in East London and mid-Essex, who responded to surveys of successful survival in older age in the late 1980s; their mortality was traced through the National Health Central Registry.

Results: adjusted analyses show that, as expected, the hazard rate for mortality over a 20-year follow-up was reduced for younger respondents and increased for less functionally able respondents. The hazard ratio for males was almost one and a half times that of females. The hazard rate was also reduced with each categorical increase in life satisfaction and was consistently reduced for those who undertook crafts, social visiting and activities regularly. There was some variation by age and sex.

Conclusion: the results show that social participation is associated with lower risks of death, particularly among people aged 65 to <85, and that life satisfaction is also protective, particularly among females and people aged 85+, even when health status and socio-demographic circumstances are controlled. The study thus provides support for the hypothesised influence of social participation and subjective well-being on survival in older age.

Keywords: mortality, survival, ageing, life satisfaction, social participation, elderly

Received 22 November 2007; accepted in revised form 22 May 2008.


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