Britain’s elderly – lonelier than ever. Where do they all belong?

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elderly, isolation, loneliness, lonely, older adults, public health issue

Britain’s elderly – lonelier than ever. Where do they all belong?

Well over one million elderly people in the UK describe themselves as lonely often or all of the time, and many more consider their pet, or even the television, to be their most important form of company.

Age UK said that the findings from their latest loneliness survey revealed a significant increase in self-reported social isolation, with 10 per cent of people describing themselves as often or always lonely. This represents an increase of nearly 300,000 on last year’s survey.

The survey, conducted this month, consulted more than 2,000 people over the age of 65, of whom there are nearly 11 million in the UK.

Two in every five respondents said their main form of company was either their pet or the television. Nationally, this would be the equivalent of 4.3m people.

Loneliness has been identified as a key public health problem in recent years, as more people become cut off from society as they retire from work and lose their independence through disability.

Recent research in the US suggests that being lonely carried twice the health risk of obesity, with people who reported loneliness 14 per cent more likely than average to die in the course of the six-month study.

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, highlighted loneliness in a speech last year, calling the plight of the “chronically lonely” a “national shame”. He said it was a problem which “in our busy lives we have utterly failed to confront as a society”.

However, Age UK’s director Caroline Abrahams said that funding cuts, which were brought in by the Coalition, were forcing many of the local services which help elderly people stay connected, such as lunch clubs, to close – increasing the work that the voluntary sector had to do.

“We know how devastating loneliness can be for older people and these figures are another reminder of the scale of the issue,” she said.

Kate Jopling, director for the Campaign to End Loneliness, added: “It should be a grave concern to health and social care managers that so many older people are now severely lonely. The evidence is clear that loneliness leads to avoidable ill health.

“If we fail to take this public health issue seriously now we may end up pushing already stretched services to breaking point.”

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Loneliness twice as unhealthy as obesity for older people, study finds

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health problems, isolation, loneliness, older adults, support

Loneliness twice as unhealthy as obesity for older people, study finds

Loneliness can be twice as unhealthy as obesity, according to researchers who found that feelings of isolation can have a devastating impact on older people.

The scientists tracked more than 2,000 people aged 50 and over and found that the loneliest were nearly twice as likely to die during the six-year study than the least lonely.

Compared with the average person in the study, those who reported being lonely had a 14% greater risk of dying. The figure means that loneliness has around twice the impact on an early death as obesity. Poverty increased the risk of an early death by 19%.

The findings point to a coming crisis as the population ages and people increasingly live alone or far from their families. A study of loneliness in older Britons in 2012 found that more than a fifth felt lonely all the time, and a quarter became more lonely over five years. Half of those who took part in the survey said their loneliness was worse at weekends, and three-quarters suffered more at night.

Previous studies have linked loneliness to a range of health problems, from high blood pressure and a weakened immune system to a greater risk of depression, heart attack and strokes. In his recent book, Loneliness, John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, says that the pain of loneliness is akin to physical pain.

Cacioppo said the world was experiencing a “silver tsunami” as baby boomers reached retirement age. “People have to think about how to protect themselves from depression, low subjective well-being and early mortality,” he said.

In light of the damaging health effects of loneliness, Cacioppo said people approaching retirement age might want to think twice about pulling up their roots and heading to fresh pastures to live out their retirement. He described results from the study at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

“We have mythic notions of retirement. We think that retirement means leaving friends and family and buying a place down in Florida where it is warm and living happily ever after. But that’s probably not the best idea,” he said.

“We find people who continue to interact with co-workers after retirement and have friends close by are less lonely. Take time to enjoy yourself and share good times with family and friends. Non-lonely people enjoy themselves with other people.”

The researchers found that some people were happy living a life of solitude. Others still felt lonely, and suffered the health impacts of loneliness, even with family and friends close by. The findings suggest that people needed to feel involved and valued by those near to them, and that company alone was not enough.

Caroline Abrahams at Age UK said the study added to a growing body of research showing that being lonely not only made life miserable for older people, but also made them more vulnerable to illness and disease.

“It’s time we took loneliness seriously as a threat to a happy and healthy later life. We need to do more to support older people to stay socially connected. This is a big part of our job at Age UK and everyone can help by being a good friend or neighbour to the older people they know,” she said.

Local branches of Age UK help older people through befriending schemes and other services that include home visits and phone calls for people who are feeling lonely or isolated, she added.

Successful, affluent older men don’t retire… they just start a new career

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unretirement

Successful, affluent older men don’t retire… they just start a new career

Affluent older men are choosing to return to work after quitting their first careers, according to research into the phenomenon of “unretirement”.

More than one in 20 retired men later decide to take up a new role, the study indicates. While some are pushed into for financial reasons, the researchers say that for the majority it’s a lifestyle choice.

Academic Ricky Kanabar will tell the Royal Economic Society’s 2013 annual conference in London today that so-called “unretirement” is common among British men who were higher earners in their career occupations.

His research shows that those who return to work in retirement share certain factors. They are likely to have at least an A-level qualification or higher, suggesting that they weren’t low-paid workers in their career. In fact the average pre-retirement salary for those who “unretire” is around £50,000.

Crucially they also plan their finances a year or more ahead and have a partner in paid work – suggesting that many retired men take up a new job so that they can retire again at the same point as their partner.

Mr Kanabar analysed data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which followed retired men between 2002 and 2009. His study shows that those retired men who switched back into paid work ended up working on average 20-hours-per-week and earning on average £470-per-month.

Mr Kanabar suggests that unretirement may only be feasible for certain types of retired British men. “That’s significant for the government’s aim to extend people’s working lives in our ageing society,” he said.

“My study shows that unretirement is prevalent among certain retired British men, a group of individuals who have a vast number of years’ experience in the labour market, are likely to be highly qualified and can thus contribute significantly to the economy.

“Moreover, given the country’s ageing population and increasing life expectancy and the fact that until only recently there had been no rise in the age at which individuals were eligible to claim their state pension, future government policy should look to provide incentives for unretirement behaviour.”

Recent research by Aviva shows that since 2010 the number of people working in retirement has actually soared. While less than one in five people aged 65-74 received wages or other earned income in December 2010, by the end of last year the figure had climbed to almost a quarter, 23 per cent.

NHS accused of age discrimination over lifesaving surgery

NHS accused of age discrimination over lifesaving surgery

Older people are being denied vital surgery for cancer, hernia repairs and joint replacements because the NHS imposes “cutoffs” for treatment based on age discrimination, a report has warned.

Health professionals can be too quick to decide against offering surgery because of “outdated assumptions of age and fitness”, according to the study by the Royal College of Surgeons, the charity Age UK and communications consultancy MHP Health Mandate. Doctors and surgeons should stop using chronological age to assess suitability for a procedure and instead use their “biological age”, or overall health, because growing life expectancy and the increasingly good health of senior citizens make birth date alone redundant as the deciding factor, it says.

The study found that while people’s health needs increase as they grow older, rates of planned surgery for some common conditions among older people steadily decline. “The gap between the increasing health need and access to surgery means many older people are missing out on potentially lifesaving treatment,” concludes the study, which details the variation by age group in patterns of treatment for eight types of surgery.

“It is alarming to think the treatment a patient receives may be influenced by their age,” said Professor Norman Williams, president of the Royal College of Surgeons. While there are often valid explanations why older patients decide not to have surgery or are recommended non-surgical treatment, he said: “The key is that it is a decision based on the patient rather than how old they are that matters.”

The report details “barriers” to older people receiving surgery, including that “some symptoms can be dismissed as an inevitable part of ageing rather than a potential sign of ill-health. This can mean a disease is at a more advanced stage by the time they are diagnosed, ruling out surgical treatment”. Equally, some older patients’ overall health may mean the risks of having a procedure outweigh the benefits.

The report takes doctors and surgeons to task for letting outdated attitudes influence their decision-making about older people’s eligibility for surgery. “The clinical benefit of providing treatment may be questioned when relative life expectancy is shorter,” it says.

Communication with older patients to discuss risks and benefits can be limited or ineffective. Conflation of chronological and biological age “means decisions may not always be made on the basis of a comprehensive and objective assessment but on a series of assumptions about fitness in older age”.

While the incidence of breast cancer is highest in women aged 85 and over, surgery peaks among those in their mid-60s and declines sharply from 70. Similarly, rates of surgery for prostate cancer, which kills 10,000 men a year, do not reflect the number of older men being diagnosed with the disease.

Life expectancy is 78 for men and 82 for women. Yet men and women who need a new hip or knee, usually owing to arthritis or a fall, are most likely to get one up to the age of 75 but less likely to do so after that, even though National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) guidelines to the NHS say age should not influence whether someone has that surgery, given its benefits.

Joint replacements appear to be increasingly restricted as the NHS rations treatments in an attempt to save £20bn by 2015. That financial pressure could mean older people are disproportionately affected by this trend in coming years, the report warns.

The gap between the number of people living with a condition or health need and the rates of surgery among older people should make surgeons and other health professionals rethink their attitudes to treatment for senior citizens, said Michelle Mitchell, charity director general at Age UK. “When it comes to people’s health their date of birth actually tells you very little. A healthy 80-year-old could literally run rings round someone many years younger who does not share the same good health.

“Yet in the past too many medical decisions we believe have been made on age alone with informal ‘cutoffs’ imposed so that people over a certain age were denied treatment.”

Such practices are now illegal. In June, the government said denying drugs or treatments on the grounds of age would be outlawed from this month, meaning older people may be able to sue the NHS to challenge decisions they feel are discriminatory because of their age.

“A new legal framework to outlaw age discrimination in the NHS cements our moral duty of care to older patients and sends a clear signal to the NHS to deliver the best care and support to every patient in line with his or her needs,” the report notes.

The Department of Health said the NHS should not deny patients treatment because of their age. “There should be absolutely no place in the NHS for assumptions about entitlement to treatment that are based on age or any other form of unjustified discrimination,” said Dan Poulter, the health minister. “All patients should be treated as individuals, with dignity and respect, and receive care that meets their healthcare needs irrespective of their age.

“The government is committed to providing dignity in elderly care, and at the beginning of October we introduced an age discrimination ban, which means that all patients will receive a more personalised care service, based on their individual needs, not their age.”

Life begins at 65: workers can now stay on if they want

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age, discrimination, employment, retirement

Life begins at 65: workers can now stay on if they want

For many people, retirement is something to look forward to. But for others, it is not. When Knud Moller, a former government statistician, was forced to leave the job he loved in 2007 simply because he had turned 65, it was a horrible blow.

Mr Moller had hoped to keep working at least until the next national census, which was four years away, in 2011. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a choice. The law required that he retire, and the Stoke native was forced out of his job.

“I felt very unhappy. You lose your professional dignity and you, in a sense, become nobody,” Mr Moller, now 70, said. “I felt very bitter. I have applied for many jobs since then but often don’t even get an acknowledgement of my application.”

From today, however, the forced retirement law is no more. The Default Retirement Age (DRA) – which allowed employers to force people to retire when they reached 65 – has been abolished and older workers will be able to choose when they stop working.

Charities and senior citizens’ groups have campaigned against the DRA since it was introduced as an anomaly of new age-equality regulations in October 2006, arguing it discriminated against workers because of their age.

The charity director general of Age UK, Michelle Mitchell, welcomed the end of the law as a “major milestone in the fight against age discrimination”.

“We hope that now it is illegal to force someone out of their job simply because they are 65 or over, it will make employers look beyond their staff’s date of birth, objectively assess their skills and contributions and trigger a more positive and realistic attitude to older people,” she said. She warned that people over 50 find it harder than any other group to get a job.

But there are 955,000 people over 65 currently in work, or nearly one in 10 of that age group. This figure has risen steadily in recent years. Aside from the financial incentive, many of those who have continued working do so because they enjoy the activity. Gary Wakefield, 68, from Battersea, London, has worked at B &Q since his former employers made him partially redundant at 62, arguing that he was too old to continue as a forklift driver.

“I have always been a busy person. I cannot see myself sitting in front of the TV. I have been married for 48 years but I think that if you see your wife 24/7 it doesn’t always work, so it’s nice that I can be away for four hours every day.”

Case study: ‘I like working. My life is much more fulfilling’

Jean Rumbold, 70, from Southampton, was forced to retire as a GP surgery receptionist aged 65 and also had to give up the Brownie pack she had run for the past 32 years. Today, she works as a medical records officer at a local hospital in the mornings and as a swimming teacher in the afternoons.

“I felt cheated because I was doing a job I absolutely loved and I could have carried on. But there was no way I was going to give up work. I just like working. I feel as though my life is more fulfilling because I work. I enjoy my leisure time when I’ve got it but I like to keep busy.

“I also like the extra money. I get a state pension and the money from my two jobs has enabled me to buy a new car, go to the theatre and know I do not have any money problems.

“My husband is disabled – he’s got severe osteoarthritis. I work to 12.30pm at the hospital then come home and see to him. I need that job to keep me sane. Watching TV all day would drive me round the twist. I just love teaching swimming – there is a real sense of achievement”.

Number of older people living with cancer ‘to treble’ by 2040

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Cancer, discrimination, older adults, support, treatment

Number of older people living with cancer ‘to treble’ by 2040

The number of older people living with cancer will more than treble by 2040, say experts, who warn of a “ticking timebomb” for society if the NHS and social care systems are not geared up to help them in time.

Macmillan Cancer Support says the number of over-65s who have received a cancer diagnosis will go up from 1.3 million in 2010 to 4.1 million in 2040.

Its estimates – based on research from Kings College London, which it funded – mean that nearly a quarter of all older people (23%) will be living with cancer within 30 years. At the moment, the figure is 13%.

The biggest increase, according to the study – published online by the British Journal of Cancer – will be in lung cancer in women, which is expected to more than double from 319 to 813 per 100,000 people. While the number of men smoking has declined markedly since the 1970s, women have not quit in the same numbers.

Professor Henrik Møller, one of the study’s authors at King’s College London, said: “The aim of this research is to provide long-term projections of cancer prevalence in the UK.

“The research shows that large increases can be expected in the oldest age groups in the coming decades and, with this, an increased demand upon health services,” he said.

Cancer is predominantly a disease of older age. More than 60% of people living with cancer are over the age of 65 and half are over 70. The numbers of older people with cancer are rising sharply because the population is living longer, but also because cancer rates are increasing and treatments are improving so that more patients are surviving for longer or are cured altogether.

But in spite of this, Macmillan argues that older people who are diagnosed do not always get the best care. Decisions about which treatments to give people are too often based on age, rather than on fitness, says the charity.

Older patients are less likely to have radical surgery or radiotherapy and some studies suggest that their survival is less likely because of it. Older people are also more likely to find it harder to recover after their treatment and more likely to feel abandoned by the health service than younger people.

Ciarán Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “The care of older cancer patients is the ticking timebomb for society.

“These stark predictions should act as a warning to the NHS and social care providers of the problems ahead if older cancer patients are not offered the best treatment and support.

“We have a moral duty to give people the best chance of beating cancer, regardless of their age. For cancer survival to improve, older people must be given the right treatment at the correct level of intensity, together with the practical support to enable them to take it up.

“The barriers to older people getting treatment must be tackled. If we don’t get this right now, many older people will be dying unnecessarily from cancer in the future,” he said.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “It’s good news that improvements in cancer treatment mean more people are surviving after cancer.

“We know more can be done to improve cancer care for older people, which is why we are working with Macmillan Cancer Support and Age UK on a £1m programme to ensure that older people’s needs are properly assessed and met.

“From 1 October 2012, it will be unlawful to discriminate in health and social care on the basis of age. Adults of all ages will benefit from better access to services, and for the first time people will have a legal right to redress from the courts if they are unjustifiably discriminated against because of their age.”

Elderly patients win right to sue if medical treatment is denied because of age

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abuse, age, discrimination, elderly, stroke

Elderly patients win right to sue if medical treatment is denied because of age

Elderly patients are to receive legal protection against being denied medical treatment simply because of their advanced years, ministers will announce today.

A ban against age discrimination in public services, such as health and social care, is to come into force in October. It will outlaw doctors, care home staff and hospital managers from deciding on levels of care on any grounds other than medical need.

Patients or relatives who believe they have been discriminated against because of their age or are being regarded as a lower priority than younger people with the same condition will able to sue health managers.

Nurses and carers will also face a legal obligation to treat older people with respect and dignity.

The moves follow years of reports of treatment being rationed by age – for instance with younger patients placed nearer the front of the queue for heart surgery – and accounts of elderly patients receiving sub-standard care.

Age discrimination in the workplace is already illegal and ministers have been deliberating for more than a year on whether the ban should be extended to the provision of services. As the timetable slipped, fears grew among campaigners for the elderly that the Government might be having second thoughts.

Ministers have dropped plans to outlaw companies and banks from charging older customers higher prices for products such as travel insurance, but are to implement the bulk of their initial proposals.

Doctors and hospital chiefs are formally advised only to allocate treatment on the basis of medical need and not age.

But studies suggest they are not always abiding by the instruction. Three years ago a think-tank concluded that older people had “differential access to services” – they were less likely than younger people to be referred to intensive care after a serious accident and waited longer in casualty departments. It also found they were not receiving equivalent treatment for conditions such as strokes and heart disease.

Paul Burstow, the Care Minister, will say today: “We know that older people are not always treated with the dignity and respect they deserve because of ageist attitudes – this will not be tolerated. Our population is ageing as more of us live longer. The challenge for the NHS is to look beyond a person’s date of birth and meet the needs of older people as individuals.”

Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said: “Discrimination based on your date of birth is as indefensible in 21st-century Britain as prejudice on the basis of race, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

“We hope the new law which will apply to the NHS, social care and other services will prevent older people being denied proper treatment because of their age. It sends a clear message to service providers that discrimination law will in future also protect older people.”

More:

Theresa May announces blanket ban on age discrimination of patients

Elderly struck by ‘epidemic’ of body image and eating disorders

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age, anxiety, Body Image, Depression, Eating Disorders, elderly, Self-esteem

Elderly struck by ‘epidemic’ of body image and eating disorders

A growing number of older British people – including those in their 70s and 80s – are suffering from low self-esteem and anxieties relating to body image.

Interviewed for the Observer Magazine this weekend, Professor Nichola Rumsey, co-director of the University of the West of England’s centre for appearance research, suggests that “as adults, 90% of British women feel body-image anxiety”.

She said: “It doesn’t wane – many women in their 80s are still anxious about the way their bodies look, which can even affect their treatment in hospital when their health choices are influenced by aesthetics.”

Popular opinion suggests that body image-related anxiety is a young person’s problem, with recent reports focusing on the age (five years old) at which we are now vulnerable to pressures to conform to an expected ideal. Constant media coverage of the debate on teenagers and their negative relationship with their bodies has served to reinforce the message that it is predominantly young people who suffer such anxieties.

However, Rumsey’s studies in Bristol counterbalance this with evidence that these anxieties do not dissipate as the years pass, but merely evolve into different types of concerns about appearance and how we are seen by others.

“We have conducted a study of about 1,200 people, which confirms that appearance-related anxieties persist well into later adulthood,” Rumsey said. “At an age where most healthcare professionals focus on controlling pain and body functionality, many patients feel the way they look is as much of a concern, but isn’t a legitimate topic of conversation.

“It can cause substantial distress to look in the mirror and see an ageing body, especially if they have very visible conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or an obvious skin condition, for example, yet in the UK we can be very dismissive of what is often construed as vanity. GPs are not trained to deal with the psychological impact of these anxieties, which can have a significant influence on overall wellbeing.”

Even those who are relatively fit and healthy in later years struggled with the idea that they no longer conformed to a youthful ideal, said Rumsey, who recently co-wrote The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Appearance. “It is a myth that older people don’t care what they look like: the ‘normal’ signs of ageing can prove very depressing and many people find it hard to see themselves in a positive light when they see a wrinkled face and a sagging body looking back in the mirror. We are now at a point where there is a social stigma around the effects of the natural ageing process, and this can lead to very low self-esteem and the classic signs of body dysmorphic disorder.”

These observations are echoed by the increasing number of body image-related cases in older people being seen by Dr Alex Yellowlees, medical director and a consultant psychiatrist at the Glasgow Priory Clinic, who is witnessing “an epidemic of self-consciousness. We are suffering from a collective body dissatisfaction, which is a contagion in our society, and we must acknowledge that it affects all walks of society, young and old.

“It was once the case that we were happy to coast into retirement and relax in our old age, but now even in these later stages of life I am seeing people who are preoccupied with shape, weight and looks in a way that was once the domain of younger people who had yet to find their path or identity in life.”

Yellowlees reports an alarming rise in older patients with eating disorders, as all sectors of society strive to achieve what he calls “an unrealistic physical ideal”.

“Today everybody is acutely aware of how they look, and our appearance has become a currency we trade on,” he said. “That means we value old people less because they don’t fit the currency of ‘youth’. This in turn leads to a lack of self-esteem in older people, because they don’t feel valued by a culture that can’t get past superficial image. Appearance is a very fragile currency to trade in because a civilised culture interacts on more sophisticated values such as character, behaviour and language.”

In a culture where increasing value is placed on our appearance, Rumsey voices concerns that we must look beyond the superficial. “Older people are the wise ones we have always looked to for their experience and knowledge, and if they are preoccupied with appearance anxieties this becomes the norm for future generations.”

Over-60s put off seeing GP

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age, health problems

Over-60s put off seeing GP

People in their 60s are ignoring signs of ill health because they fear being dismissed as hypochondriacs or believe medical problems are a by-product of ageing.

Department of Health figures show almost a third (31 per cent) of people in their 60s put off visiting their GP because they think problems will simply go away.

An average of nearly two-thirds (62 per cent) ignore health concerns as they believe these are inevitable and not worth reporting, with the figure higher (71 per cent) for men.

Professor Ken Fox, an expert in older people’s health at Bristol University, said: “We’re not saying your body won’t change as you get older, it will, but it is important to get any unusual twinges checked out by a GP.”

However, the study found one in 10 would prefer not to know if they have a serious health problem.

Elderly People In Britain Lonelier Than In Other European Countries, Study Finds

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elderly, isolation, loneliness

Elderly People In Britain Lonelier Than In Other European Countries, Study Finds

Elderly people in Britain are lonelier and poorer that those in similar European countries, international research suggests.

They are also more concerned about age discrimination than some of their European neighbours and feel more negative towards young people, a Demos report has found.

More over-65s in this country suffer life-limiting illnesses than in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, it showed.

The UK was graded third among the four countries in its overall performance across a range of areas considered in the report prepared for older people’s charity WRVS.

One reason for the sense of solitude felt by Britain’s elderly may be long-term underinvestment by local authorities in services that reduce isolation and loneliness, it was argued.

The country’s poor score in elderly people’s health might reflect particularly unhealthy lifestyles in the UK, with higher rates of alcohol consumption and obesity than in the other three countries, the Ageing Across Europe report suggested.

By contrast, in Sweden, where older people are the healthiest of those across the four countries, public policy focuses on improving health earlier on in life to ensure a healthier old age.

Of the four countries, Britain’s over-65s were found to face the highest chance of living in poverty, with a fifth of pensioners at risk in 2010, compared to only six per cent of pensioners at risk of poverty in the Netherlands.

Older women in the UK were more concerned about age discrimination than older men, the study found.

WRVS said the findings should act as a wake-up call.  Chief executive David McCullough said: “The treatment of older people in this country needs to be addressed and we must learn from our EU partners.

“They have proved it is possible to tackle some of these issues by taking advantage of volunteers to provide older people with more social contact and better links to their communities.

“This, in turn, will have a knock-on beneficial impact on their health.”

The study recommended more volunteering to provide peer support to older people and boost their social life, and annual government reports on Britain’s older population measuring progress against other European Union countries.

The UK should also explore what else can be done to encourage intergenerational mingling, it suggested.

The Government described loneliness as one of society’s biggest challenges.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: “Lack of day-to-day contact can have a huge impact on people’s health.

“The Government is working with the Campaign to End Loneliness to raise awareness about how important even a simple phone call or visit can be to someone’s health.

“We will be setting out in our care and support White Paper how we will work with the voluntary sector, businesses, local communities and others to put tackling loneliness on the agenda.”