Health and ill-health in the older population in England and Wales

Objective: to provide a profile of disorders and disabilities in the older population. Design: the MRC CFAS drew population samples of people aged 64 pears and ov er from Family Health Service Authority lists at five sites and asked parti cipants about sociodemographic variables, physical and cognitive health and activities of daily living. We calculated the prevalence of co-morbidity f rom the number of different types of complaint or disability (physical, fun ctional and cognitive), and calculated healthy life expectancies in each of these co-morbid states. Setting: three urban (Newcastle, Nottingham and Oxford) and two rural sites (Cambridgeshire and Gwynedd). Results: the prevalence of morbidity is low at the youngest ages, as is co- morbidity. Women have consistently greater morbidity than men. Morbidity in creases sharply with age, with a more dramatic rise in women. Life expectan cy without any morbidity is short at all ages over 64, with the number of y ears expected with two or more areas affected virtually constant up to 90 y ears. As a proportion of remaining life expectancy the period of time spent with two or more areas affected rises by the age of 90 to 30% in men and 6 0% in women. Conclusions: preventive programmes for the older population should take int o account the large differences between the young old, the middle old and t he old old. Our study provides a baseline against which to compare future c hanges in health in older populations, as well as benchmark expectancies fo r the UK population.