Centre for Policy on Ageing



Standard indicators of deprivation — do they disadvantage older people?
Author(s)	Dermot O'Reilly
Journal title	Age and Ageing, vol 31, no 3, May 2002
Pages	pp 197-202
Keywords	Poor elderly ; Death rate [statistics] ; Poverty ; Measurement ; Indicators ; Northern Ireland.
Annotation	Research into inequalities in health of older people has been hampered by lack of suitable socio-economic measures; and many of the commonly used indicators of deprivation (Townsend, Carstairs and Jarman) are inherently biased against older people. In this ecological study, the authors calculated standardised mortality ratios for those under and over age 75, using all deaths in Northern Ireland between 1990 and 1998. They calculated levels of Income Support uptake (a social security benefit) for similar age groups. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to assess the strength of association between mortality ratios and indicators of poverty and deprivation. Income Support uptake for over 75s was found to be a good proxy for poverty levels, and can be tailored to examine disadvantage for various age and sex groups. Mortality ratios in people aged 75+ are more closely associated with indicators of poverty for this age group than with standard indicators of deprivation. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020530211 A
Classmark	F:W6: S5: W6: 3R: 3RI: 9Y
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