Subjective health of older population

In France, driving license holders have doubled for the last 35 years. The action of ageing of the population combined with the acquisition for a lifetime of a driving license are two main reasons for this increase. As a result, seniors are more likely to have a driver's license.
The first aim of this paper is to analyze the distribution of driving licenses of the French population throughout the last 40 years according to gender and age. The younger the generation, the higher the number of driving license holders. But has the main cause of access to driving licenses always to do with generational issues? We show that the number of driving license holders is now mainly influenced by an age effect rather than a generational effect for men while this number is still dominated by a generational effect for women.
The largest increase in the motorization rate since 1973 was carried out in households headed by a retired person. The second aim of this paper is to analyze the increase of the seniors' motorization and behavioral changes that result of this increase. There are more retired people on roads than before plus they are as dependant of cars as they were when they used to work.

Significant changes have occurred in the patterns of aging and epidemiology in developing countries in recent times. Chronic diseases have become major diseases burden in Ghana, as the nation still struggles to deal with communicable diseases. Using the element and progression of chronic disease model as the conceptual framework, the study analysed the prevalence of chronic diseases among aged (60+ years) who reported at Cape Coast Metropolitan (CCM) hospital in 2004 and 2009. The standard multiple regression was the main statistical tool employed in the study.
Hypertensive heart disease (HHD) emerged as the major chronic disease burden reported among the aged (64.6%) especially among the young-old aged (60-75 years). This was followed by diabetes (42%) and cancers (40%). Females dominated in the reported HHD cases while the males reported more diabetes. There was a weak relationship between sex and chronic diseases reported. The young-old reported more chronic diseases than the old-old in both 2004 and 2009. The aged reported more chronic disease cases in 2004 than in 2009.
To sum-up, in-service training for proper records keeping at CCM hospital should be encourage to ensure accuracy of data keeping to update authorities of Cape Coast Metropolitan Health Directorate in policy implementation.

A state-funded non-contributory pension plays an important role in poor and AIDS-affected rural South African households. Earlier cross-sectional analyses of 2006 and 2010 WHO-INDEPTH Study of Global Aging and Adult Health (WHO-SAGE) survey from the MRC/University of the Witwatersrand Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit (Agincourt) show strong sex differences in reports of health and wellbeing in persons over the age of 50, as well as gendered but temporary positive impact of pension receipt on older persons’ health and wellbeing. This paper builds on the earlier work through longitudinal analyses within individuals interviewed in both 2006 and 2010 to assess whether individual results mirror the cross-sectional results. Specifically, we hypothesize that for individuals, reported health and wellbeing will improve in the five years following pension receipt, and decrease in the years following; and, that the “pension bump” will be more prominent for women than for men.

Family resources may play an important role in the wellbeing of the elderly. In this paper, we examine the association between living arrangements and cognitive decline among people over 65 in nine European countries under the hypothesis that living with others (i.e. spouse or/and children) vis –à- vis living alone may have positive effects on maintaining cognitive functioning. To this end we used data from the first two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which provides five indicators of cognitive functions: orientation, memory, recall, verbal fluency, and numeracy. Net of both the potential biases due to the selective attrition and the re-test effects, the evidence shows that the impact of living arrangement on cognitive decline depends on both the country and the type of cognitive examined.

According to the 2001 Census, individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups comprised about 10% of the total UK population, while the younger age structure of the BME population means that BME groups comprise less than 4% of the population aged 50 and over. Research has emphasised the health and socio-economic disadvantage experienced by BME groups, as well as the key policy challenge associated with the ageing of the BME population, and with their pension protection. More than half of Pakistani and Bangladeshi older people, half of Indian older people and about one-third of Black Caribbean older people, are in the bottom-fifth of the income distribution, while pensioners from these groups are more likely to rely on means-tested benefits. This paper analyses data from the first wave of Understanding Society, a UK-wide representative survey, in order to explore patterns of state pension receipt and the determinants of membership in an occupational pension scheme among older people aged 65 and over in five groups: Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Caribbean and African. The paper revisits existing research exploring the interaction of ethnicity and gender to the detriment of pension protection for both women and men from the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities.