Ageing Well in Later Life: Health Behaviour Change and Implications for the Social Care of Widows in England

England has experienced an increase in life expectancy which continues to stress the social care system.
The proposed mixed method research will examine, over time, the impact of widowhood on older
women's (60+ years) health behaviour who are ageing well, the social determinants of such changes,
and the implications for social care receipt in later life. Use and analysis of variables (demographic,
socio-economic, physical, medical, lifestyle measures, social and civic participation) identified in the
English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (waves 1-8) as well as 30 semi-structured interviews will be
used to address the following research questions:
1. How do the demographic, health status, health behaviour and socio-economic characteristics of
widows differ from those among other groups of marital status? (cross-sectional)
2. How do health status and health behaviour change as marital status changes? (longitudinal)
3. What are the care needs of widows?
4. How effective are local services in meeting these needs and how can services be improved to better
support widows?
The goal of this research is to identify modifiable behaviour change determinants that can assist
individuals age well, reduce care needs, and the costs for individual payers and local government
spending.