Living Arrangements And Health And Well-being Of Older Europeans

Key findings from the research include:

• Older people living alone were more likely to be depressed, lonely and unhappy and to be less satisfied with life than those living with a spouse.
• Those living with a relative or friend were more likely to be lonely than those living with a spouse.
• Men living with a relative or friend were less likely to be happy or satisfied with life than those living with a wife.
• In most regions of Europe, older women who were unmarried were in general happier living with friends and family than alone. But this did not apply to women in Nordic countries where there was no significant difference in happiness levels between living alone or with other people.
• In England, older women rated their health better if they lived alone rather than with a husband however, men and women living alone had a higher mortality risk than those who lived with a spouse.
• In Europe, older women in Nordic countries living alone rated their own health as significantly worse than those living with a husband but this was not the case in Eastern and Southern regions of Europe.
• These associations did not appear to be moderated by the presence of other social ties- but this needs further investigation.

Professor Emily Grundy from the Centre for Population Studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine commented: "These findings have important policy implications for whether long term care services for older people living alone should be prioritized, or if services should be directed at unpaid family carers. This research highlights differences within Europe. Older people in Scandinavia were happier than in other regions of Europe. In Scandinavia there are generous welfare systems. In quite a lot of countries, including the UK, older people living alone were less happy and had lower life satisfaction than those who lived with others".

The study was carried out by Harriet Young and Professor Emily Grundy at the Centre for Population Studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It was based on findings from the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study on England and Wales, the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing on England, and the European Social Survey with data from 19 European Countries. Four categories were used for living arrangements: living with a spouse only, living alone, living with a spouse as well as other people, and living with people other than a spouse.

This study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.