Health of Older People in Places (HOPE) An asset for economic and social improvement for all

Evidence shows that older people who live in more deprived areas are more likely to retire early and/or take up a disability pension. The health of people who live in these places has been cited as one of the main reasons for these geographic differences in outcomes after leaving employment.

This suggests that if a higher proportion of people in a place had better health, those older people would be able to stay in the labour market for longer, and local economies would benefit economically and socially from the extended working lives of residents.

However, there is lack of understanding of just how policymakers should go about ‘improving’ older people’s health so that they can remain in work. Most extended working lives policies focus on intervening on ‘unhealthy’ individuals, regardless of where they live.

This project by University College London investigated whether a place-based approach could be a more effective method of intervention.

The research looked at what we mean by a ‘healthy’ person, what geographic scale interventions should be targeted at, and why we see improvements in the health of a place (ie is the health of the pre-existing population actually improving or have more healthy people moved in and/or unhealthy people moved out?).

An evidence review looked at which concepts and metrics of health are appropriate to measure the health of the older population in a given place, and UK census data was used to investigate a series of analytical questions.

Project findings will be shared with key stakeholders to inform national public health and economic policy.

Contact information

For more information, please contact Emily T Murray, Senior Research Fellow, University College London.