Emily Grundy

• Managing Director at University of Essex

Background Iran has experienced a very fast fertility transition. The process of demographic transition, coupled with modernization, has had considerable consequences for the structure and function of families. There is rising concern in Iran about a potential decline in family care and support for older people as a result of these changes. The mai...

We consider how exchanges of support between parents and adult children vary by demographic and socio-economic characteristics and examine evidence for reciprocity in transfers and substitution between practical and financial support. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2011–19, repeated measures of help given and received are analy...

Background Iran has experienced a very fast fertility transition. The process of demographic transition, coupled with modernization, has had considerable consequences for the structure and function of families. There is rising concern in Iran about a potential decline in family care and support for older people as a result of these changes. The mai...

We consider how exchanges of support between parents and adult children vary by demographic and socio-economic characteristics and examine evidence for reciprocity in transfers and substitution between practical and financial support. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study 2011-19, repeated measures of help given and received are analy...

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived social support (PSS) and dimensions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and to examine possible gender interaction in the mentioned associations. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study conducted among 644 participants over the age of 60 years old...

Families extend well beyond households. In particular, connections between parents and their adult offspring are often close and sustained, and transfers may include financial assistance, practical support, or both, provided by either generation to the other. Yet this major engine of welfare production, distribution, and redistribution has only rec...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived social support and dimensions of HRQoL and to examine possible gender interaction in the mentioned associations. Method: A community-based cross-sectional study conducted among 644 participants over the age of 60 years old in Tehran. The data were collected throu...

Previous research on neighbourhood influences on older adults’ mental health shows inconsistent evidence for effects of neighbourhood deprivation but stronger evidence for effects of perceived neighbourhood social cohesion, often proposed as a mediator of the link between neighbourhood deprivation and mental well-being. However, it is possible that...

Exchanges of practical or financial help between people living in different households are a major component of intergenerational exchanges within families and an increasingly important source of support for individuals in need. Using longitudinal data, bivariate dynamic panel models can be applied to study the effects of changes in individual circ...

EXPosure, vuLnerability and BehaviOural REsponse: Individual, household and neighbourhood inequalities and COVID-19: Bibliography - EXPLORE

Research on the later-life health implications of fertility history has predominantly considered associations with mortality or self-reported indicators of health. Most of this previous research has either not been able to account for selection factors related to both early-life and later-life health or has had to rely on retrospectively reported a...

Background: Several studies have shown that women and men with two children have lower mortality than the childless, but there is less certainty about mortality, including CVD mortality, at higher parities and meagre knowledge about factors underlying the parity-mortality relationship. Methods: The association between parity and CVD mortality wa...

Socio-economic inequalities in physical and mental health persist at older ages and previous studies have shown that partnership and parenthood histories are also associated with differentials in later-life health. These domains of adult life interact, and both may be influenced by earlier life circumstances, indicating a need for a holistic approa...

Objectives To investigate associations between level and changes in social isolation and in memory in older men and women. Methods The sample included 6123 women and 5110 men aged 50+ from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Extended Latent Change Score models from six measurement occasions every two years from 2002 were used to investigate...

Objectives: To investigate associations between level and changes in social isolation and in memory in older men and women. Methods: The sample included 6123 women and 5110 men aged 50+ from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Extended Latent Change Score models from six measurement occasions every two years from 2002 were used to investig...

Later-life loneliness is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue. In this study, we examine whether having more children and grandchildren is protective against later life loneliness in a group of Eastern and Western European countries. Drawing on data from the Generation and Gender Surveys, we estimated logistic regression mode...

Large family size and early parenthood have been associated with adverse health outcomes in old age whereas there is increasing evidence of the beneficial effects of physical activity. We examined the extent to which physical activity might mediate and/or moderate later life health disadvantages related to a high number of children and early parent...

Population ageing is one of the dominant trends of the 21st century. As morbidity and disability are concentrated in the older population, interventions to promote healthy ageing are needed in order to offset the effects that ageing will have on population health. Health related behaviour is a focal area for possible interventions since its associa...

We systematically reviewed the evidence on secular trends in main chronic conditions, disability and self-assessed general health among adults in the United Kingdom, as reported in primary/secondary care databases and population-based surveys. Searches were conducted separately for: (1) trends in age-standardised or age-specific prevalence of major...

Previous studies have shown that aspects of reproductive history, such as earlier parenthood and high parity, are associated with poorer health in mid and later life. However, it is unclear which dimensions of health are most affected by reproductive history, and whether the pattern of associations varies for measures of physical, psychological and...

We examined pathways between indicators of fertility tempo and quantum and depressive symptoms among older parents with at least two children using three waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Using standard regression approaches and path analysis within the structural equation framework, we additionally investigated whether fertility t...

This study aimed to assess whether children’s age at their parents’ divorce is associated with depression in early and mid-adulthood, as indicated by medication purchase. A sibling comparison method was used to control for unobserved factors shared between siblings. The data were extracted from the Norwegian Population Register and Norwegian Prescr...

This book presents a rigorous enquiry into life course processes that are thought to influence health, integrating the latest methodologies for the study of pathways that link socio-demographic circumstances to health with an emphasis on the mediating factors that lie on these pathways. Following an introductory chapter on the application of formal...

The impact that providing care to ageing parents has on adult children's lives may depend on the long-term care (LTC) context. A common approach to test this is to compare whether the impact of care-giving varies between countries with different LTC coverage. However, this approach leaves considerable room for omitted variable bias. We use individu...

We investigate how daughters’ feelings of loneliness are impacted when widowed parents develop health limitations, and when daughters take on personal care tasks in response. Using longitudinal data from daughters of widowed parents drawn from the French Family and Intergenerational Relationships Study (ERFI, 1485 observations nested in 557 daughte...

In this comparative study focusing on the population aged 50 and over in three European countries, we investigate the association between household debt and depressive symptoms, and possible country differences in this association, using data from Waves 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the Surveys of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for Belgium,...

Objective: We investigate the association between parent-child contact frequency and changes in older parents’ depressive symptoms in Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia. These are countries in which societal transformations may mean that psychological feelings of security engendered by having children in close contact may have particularly important impl...

Co-resident adult children may be a source of emotional and instrumental support for older parents, but also a source of conflict and stress. Results from previous research are far from conclusive and indicate that intergenerational co-residence may have both negative and positive effects on parents' depressive symptoms and physical health. We anal...

BACKGROUND In several European countries the excess mortality of nonmarried people relative to the married has increased. In this study we describe in detail the increasing mortality advantage of the married in Norway and investigate the extent to which changes in educational composition of marital-status groups can account for this increasing mort...

Background: Urbanization and ageing have important implications for public mental health and well-being. Cities pose major challenges for older citizens, but also offer opportunities to develop, test, and implement policies, services, infrastructure, and interventions that promote mental well-being. The MINDMAP project aims to identify the opportu...

Population ageing—the process leading to increases in the representation of older people in the total population—was a predominant trend in trend in twentieth-century Europe, which will intensify over the course of the current century. This chapter presents information on the past, current, and likely future size and demographic characteristics of...

Both coresidence patterns and the reported well-being of older people vary widely across Europe for a variety of economic, cultural, and historical factors. We investigate how far 2 indicators of well-being, happiness and life satisfaction, vary according to whether or not older women live with their children and, in particular, with son(s) or daug...

Background: Research using nonmigrant samples indicates that having a partner and children is protective against loneliness. Such beneficial effects may be weaker for migrants with partners and/or children living in different countries. Objective: We assess how feelings of loneliness among Polish migrants in the Netherlands compare to levels among...

Objectives: To investigate associations between number of children and partnership with depressive symptoms among older Europeans and assess whether associations are greater in Eastern than Western countries. We further analyze whether associations are mediated by provision and receipt of emotional and financial support. Methods: Using cross-sectio...

Background The MODEM project (A comprehensive approach to MODelling outcome and costs impacts of interventions for DEMentia) explores how changes in arrangements for the future treatment and care of people living with dementia, and support for family and other unpaid carers, could result in better outcomes and more efficient use of resources. Meth...

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) are two European longitudinal surveys with data on socio-demographic and health topics. We compared SHARE and GGS data for 50-80 year olds in seven European countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands and Poland) to a...

Objectives: To investigate direct and stress-buffering associations between social support from family and the mental health of older people in Iran, a country which has recently undergone an exceptionally fast fertility transition and is consequently experiencing rapid population ageing. Method: A cross-sectional stratified random survey of 800...

The association between social support and mental health is still not fully understood, especially among older people. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current state of research on the topic. The authors undertook a systematic review to identify all review studies irrespective of date, and new primary research studies published since...

We analyse effects of parental deaths on the health of women and men aged 18–59 in 2004–2008, indicated by purchases of prescription medicines. Register data covering the entire Norwegian population were used, and fixed-effects models were estimated to control for unobserved time-invariant individual factors. A parent's death seemed to have immedia...

Socioeconomically disadvantaged children are more likely to be of shorter stature and overweight, leading to greater risk of obesity in adulthood. Disentangling the mediatory pathways between socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood size may help in the development of appropriate policies aimed at reducing these health inequalities. We aimed to elu...

Socioeconomically disadvantaged children are more likely to be of shorter stature and overweight, leading to greater risk of obesity in adulthood. Disentangling the mediatory pathways between socioeconomic disadvantage and childhood size may help in the development of appropriate policies aimed at reducing these health inequalities. We aimed to elu...

Background: Marital and partnership history is strongly associated with health in midlife and later life. However, the role of health behaviours as an explanatory mechanism remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate prospective associations between life-course partnership trajectories (taking into account timing, non-marital cohabit...

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Strohschein’s letter regarding our published article in AJPH. The main issue raised by Strohschein is that our study lacks a test of interaction for one of our findings, namely that men derive more health benefits from marriage than women. Strohschein cites a newspaper article, which appears to reference...

In the context of the current policy emphasis on extending working lives, we investigate whether the relationship between participation in paid work, other formal, and informal activities among people aged 50–69 is complementary or competitive. We also investigate differences in associations between countries using comparable longitudinal data from...

Analysing causes of death provides a betterunderstanding of long-term mortality trends. InFrance, the death certificates completed by physiciansgenerally mention several causes of death (2.4 onaverage in 2011). As a general rule, just one of them,the so-called underlying cause, is taken into account.As a result, the contribution of certain diseases...

Methods: We analysed associations between number of children (parity) and timing of births with level and change in cognition among 11,233 men and women aged 50+ in England using latent growth curve models. Models were adjusted for age, socioeconomic position, health, depressive symptoms, control, social contacts, activities and isolation. Results...

A growing body of evidence suggests that reproductive history influences post-reproductive mortality. A potential explanation for this association is confounding by socioeconomic status in the family of origin, as socioeconomic status is related to both fertility behaviours and to long-term health. We examine the relationship between age at first b...

Objectives: Life course influences on later life depression may include parenting trajectories. We investigate associations between number and timing of births and use of antidepressant medication in late mid-life using data on the whole Norwegian population. Methods: We estimated logistic regression models to analyse variations in the purchase...

Objectives: T o investigate the association between fertility history and cognition in older men and women. Method: W e analyzed associations between number of children (parity) and timing of births with level and change in cognition among 11,233 men and women aged 50+ in England using latent growth curve models. Models were adjusted for age, socio...

Background Aspects of fertility history such as early childbearing and high parity are associated with womens’ poorer later life physical and mental health. Few studies on the topic address health change longitudinally so little is known about whether health decline is accelerated for particular groups of mothers. Additionally most previous studies...

The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies of Depression (CES-D) and the Euro-D are commonly used depressive symptom scales but their comparability has not been assessed to date. This article aims to contribute to the literature comparing the drivers of depression in old age across countries by examining whether CES-D (in its eight-item short version) an...

We examined the association between trajectories of partnership status over the life course and objectively measured health indicators in midlife. We used data from 4 waves (1981, 1991, 2000, and 2002-2004) of the British National Child Development Study (NCDS), a prospective cohort study that includes all people born in Britain during 1 week in Ma...

Previous studies of older European populations have established that disability and morbidity vary with indicators of socio-economic position (SEP). We undertook a systematic narrative review of the literature to ascertain to what extent there is evidence of similar inequalities in the subjective health and well-being of older people in Europe. Rel...

Decades of research supports a widely held view that providing parent care is stressful, and that these stresses are associated with adverse mental health outcomes. However, some recent studies suggest an additional possibility, namely that “noncaregiver stress”—a consequence of having a parent with major care needs, but not being an active caregiv...

Previous research shows associations between fertility histories and later life health. The childless, those with large families, and those with a young age at entry to parenthood generally have higher mortality and worse health than parents of two or three children. These associations are hypothesised to reflect a range of biosocial influences but...

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) are two widely used European longitudinal surveys with data on sociodemographic and health topics, but their comparability has not been systematically investigated. We compared SHARE and GGS data for 50-80 year olds in seven European countries...

It is well established that unmarried people have higher mortality from circulatory diseases and higher all-cause mortality than the married, and these marital status differences seem to be increasing. However, much remains to be known about the underlying mechanisms. Our objective was to examine marital status differences in the purchase of medica...

Using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, 1998-2010, we investigated the extent to which patterns of alcohol consumption in Russia are associated with the subsequent likelihood of entry into cohabitation and marriage. Using discrete-time event history analysis we estimated for 16-50 year olds the extent to which the probabilities...

Research on admissions to care homes for older people has paid more attention to individual and social characteristics than to geographical factors. This paper considers rural–urban differences in household composition and admission rates. Cohort: 51,619 people aged 65 years or older at the time of the 2001 Census and not living in a care home, dra...

Objective: Allostatic load, a composite measure of accumulated physical wear and tear, has been proposed as an early sign of physiological dysregulation predictive of health problems, functional limitation, and disability. However, much previous research has been cross sectional and few studies consider repeated measures. We investigate the direct...

Background Short and very long interbirth intervals are associated with worse perinatal, infant and immediate maternal outcomes. Accumulated physiological, mental, social and economic stresses arising from raising children close in age may also mean that interbirth intervals have longer term implications for the health of mothers and fathers, but f...

Abortion rates in Russia, particularly repeat abortions, are among the highest in the world, and abortion complications make a substantial contribution to the country’s high maternal mortality rate. Russia also has a very high rate of hazardous alcohol use. However, the association between alcohol use and abortion in Russia remains unexplored. We i...

To examine whether socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with progression in the health-seeking process for hearing loss.Method.Logistic regression of data from a cross-sectional survey representative of noninstitutionalized, 50 years and older population of England (ELSA wave 2, 2004). Using self-reported hearing difficulty as starting point,...

The relative contribution of early or later life Socio Economic Position (SEP) to later life health is not fully understood and there are alternative hypotheses about the pathways through which they may influence health. We used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with a formal approach for the identification of mediating factors in...

Ethnicity recording across the National Health Service (NHS) has improved dramatically over the past decade. This study profiles the completeness, consistency and representativeness of routinely collected ethnicity data in both primary care and hospital settings. Completeness and consistency of ethnicity recording was examined in the Clinical Pract...

'Active ageing' has been promoted as a strategy for extending quality of life and healthy life expectancy. However, there is limited evidence from nationally representative longitudinal studies on whether engagement among older adults is associated with better outcomes and few studies have considered possible bias arising from differential study at...

The aim of the study was to explore associations between dimensions of alcohol use in married couples and subsequent divorce in Russia using longitudinal data. Follow-up data on 7157 married couples were extracted from 14 consecutive annual rounds (1994-2010) of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, a national population-based panel study. Di...

Background: Many studies have suggested that caregiving has a detrimental impact on health. However, these conclusions are challenged by research which finds evidence of a comparative survivorship advantage, as well as work which controls for group differences in the demand for care. Methods: We use a large record linkage study of England and Wa...

The aim of this study is to systematically review quantitative studies exploring the association between social support (SS) and the health of older people in Middle Eastern countries. Sixteen electronic databases and other resources were searched to identify studies that met the inclusion criteria of the review. Abstracts of identified papers were...

The ageing of European populations presents health, long-term care, and welfare systems with new challenges. Although reports of ageing as a fundamental threat to the welfare state seem exaggerated, societies have to embrace various policy options to improve the robustness of health, long-term care, and welfare systems in Europe and to help people...

The ageing of European populations presents health, long-term care, and welfare systems with new challenges. Although reports of ageing as a fundamental threat to the welfare state seem exaggerated, societies have to embrace various policy options to improve the robustness of health, long-term care, and welfare systems in Europe and to help people...

Socioeconomic adversity is among the foremost fundamental causes of human suffering, and this is no less true in old age. Recent reports on socioeconomic inequalities in mortality rate in old age suggest that a low socioeconomic position continues to increase the risk of death even among the oldest old. We aimed to examine the evidence for socioeco...

The aim of this working paper is to inform researchers of the availability of ethnicity data in population based datasets which are available for use in epidemiological and social science research. The paper begins by introducing the concept of ethnicity and problems associated with definition and classification. Secondly, the paper charts the evol...

Objectives: To investigate whether number of children and, among parents, having a daughter is associated with older people's likelihood of at least weekly face-to-face social contact and later receipt of help if needed. Method: Multivariate analysis of data from Waves 1 and 2 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Results: Older...

Background In Russia male drinking patterns have serious negative health effects; however the impact of alcohol on divorce is relatively unexplored. In other settings heavy drinking and discrepant drinking within couples increases the probability of marital breakdown. Longitudinal data, rather than cross-sectional, is preferable to establish the di...

Objectives: We examined the extent to which the association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and later life prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and visual impairment in Nakuru, Kenya is mediated by health-related behaviour. Methods: We used data from a community survey of 4,314 participants sampled from urban and rural areas in Nakuru, Keny...

Objectives: To investigate factors associated with Chilean grandparents’ provision of help to grandchildren and associations between provision of such help and grandparents’ mental well-being two years later. Methods: Data are drawn from a representative sample of 2000 people aged 66–68 resident in low- or middle-income areas of Santiago who were s...

Using data on all Norwegians born 1935-68, we analyze the associations between mortality and a combined indicator of fertility and marital or partnership status and history. The focus is on ages 40-73 and the years 1980-2008 (30 million person-years of observations and 117,000 deaths). Among men in first marriages, the childless have 36 percent hig...

In this article, we examine the extent and pattern of country level differences in later life health in Europe and compare five competing explanations for this variation. We used data from 14 European countries, drawn from Northern (Denmark and Sweden), Western (Austria, France, Ireland, Germany Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland), Mediterran...

Previous research has shown that home ownership is associated with a reduced risk of admission to institutional care. The extent to which this reflects associations between wealth and health, between wealth and ability to buy in care or increased motivation to avoid admission related to policies on charging is unclear. Taking account of the value o...

Little is known about the effects of long-term marital history on mortality, and the relative importance of using marital history instead of baseline marital status in mortality analyses. No previous comparative studies on the associations of marital history and mortality exist. Methods: Longitudinal data from England & Wales and from Finland were...

Purpose – This paper's aim is to analyse ethnic group differences in self reported limiting long term illness (LLTI) among middle-aged men and women in England and Wales and compare patterns of variation in 1991 and 2001. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is a cross-sectional analysis of two nationally representative cohorts aged 40-59...

In Russia hazardous alcohol consumption among men has a major impact on life expectancy. However, the harms associated with heavy drinking are likely to include adverse impacts on drinkers' partners and children. Relatively little is known about the potentially major impact of drinking on family conflict, separation and divorce. Attempting to resol...

EU countries need to work together with health professionals and other stakeholders