LIMITING LONG-TERM ILLNESS AND HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE AMONG PEOPLE AGED 45 AND OVER, GREAT-BRITAIN 1991

The aim of the study reported here was to investigate the relationship between health and household composition among older people. The I pe r cent and 2 per cent SARs (Samples of Anonymised Records) drawn from 1991 British Census data were used to examine the frequency of a limit ing long-term illness among older people according to different types of living arrangements. These data include the population in instituti ons and our results show that previous studies based only on the priva te household population have underestimated the prevalence of illness among older people. Long-term illness rates vary across family and hou sehold types, with higher frequencies found for those individuals not living in families (either alone or with others) or in lone parent fam ilies, compared with those living as part of a couple. Importantly, ou r results show a previously unreported clustering of long-term illness in households. Those over 45 suffering from a limiting long-term illn ess were more likely than those without such an illness, to live in ho useholds including others with long-term illness. These results indica te that health should be considered from a household, rather than just an individual, perspective. Our findings support those who have argue d that families including an older ill member need more help from form al services. However, it is unlikely that this can be achieved solely by redeploying services from those living alone as longterm illness ra tes were also high in this group.