Health and household transitions among older people: trends over time and differences between England, Wales and Scotland - Professor Emily Grundy

There have been considerable changes in the living arrangements of older people in past decades and in the availability, and cost, of long-term care in nursing and residential homes for those unable to manage at home.

In this talk we use data from the ONS Longitudinal Study of England Wales and the ‘sister’ Scottish Longitudinal Study to investigate changes over time in household transitions and how these are related to subsequent mortality.

These studies link census data to vital registration data, including mortality, for representative samples of the relevant population. The ONS LS has data from the 1971 Census onward; the SLS data from 1991.

About the speaker

Professor Emily Grundy joined the University of Essex in October 2017 as Professor of Population Science in the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), and served as Institute Director 2017-2020.

Before joining ISER she was Professor of Demography at the London School of Economics. Previous appointments include positions at the University of Cambridge, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, (where she gained her PhD and MSc in Medical Demography), and King’s College, London.

Much of Emily’s research has focussed on life course influences on health and well-being, including extensive work on links between partnership, parenthood and reproductive trajectories and mental and physical health. Other main areas of research relate to household and family change, intergenerational exchanges, caregiving, health inequalities, and other aspects of later life health and well-being.

Current projects include, among others, work with the Norwegian Centre on Fertility and Health on a study investigating how experiences at first childbirth influence differences in progression to a second birth.

Emily is Past President of the British Society for Population Studies, past Secretary General and member of the Council of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and member of various international and national advisory scientific advisory groups. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy.