Centre for Policy on Ageing



The elderly at risk — a critical examination of commonly identified risk groups
Author(s)	R C Taylor, E G Ford
Journal title	Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, vol 33, no 256, November 1983
Pages	pp 699-705
Keywords	At risk ; Longitudinal surveys.
Annotation	This study assessed the nature and extent of risk or disadvantage for 11 subcategories of the older population usually referred to as risk groups. Interviews with 619 people aged 60 years and over living in Aberdeen were used to score the `personal resources' for coping with difficulties - health, psychological, activity, confidence, support, and material resources. Risk profiles were drawn up and these showed substantial variation in both the nature and extent of risk or disadvantage between the groups. Of the 11 groups, the study concluded that the isolated, the childless and the never married were probably the least disadvantaged. The recently widowed, those living alone, the poor and those from social class V formed an intermediate group with both strengths and weaknesses in terms of risk. The groups at greatest risk were the recently moved, recently discharged, divorced/separated, and the very old, who all scored worse than the whole sample in terms of health and psychological functioning. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-930602036 A
Classmark	CA3: 3J *
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.