Television viewing is an important leisure activity for older adults. The aim of the current study is to provide insight into the meanings of television in older adults' lives, by analysing change and continuity in their television viewing. A qualitative study was conducted that included in-depth interviews on television viewing among a diverse sample of Dutch people aged 65 years and older (N=86). The interview study shows that television has a variety of meanings for older adults. The meanings of television viewing changed in response to changes in everyday life, but this did not happen unidirectionally. Retirement, physical changes and changes in household composition led to increases as well as decreases in television viewing. Watching more television was experienced in both positive and negative ways. After a loss in the interpersonal sphere, television viewing can play a valuable role in adaptation processes, but it was also experienced as an activity that needs to be avoided. With regard to television content we found that some programmes gained importance when people age, whereas other programmes became less important or attractive. These changes in television viewing occurred for only part of the sample and some interviewees experienced continuity in the status of viewing and in their content preferences. The results are discussed in the context of recent literature on leisure constraints, leisure as coping, and adaptation strategies.

Contact with family and friends, in the form of visiting, is very important to the quality of the lives of rural nursing home residents. However, there has been little recent research that examines the frequency and determinants of visits to rural nursing homes and none in the rural Australian context. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature. A telephone survey with a close family member (N=257) of each participating resident in the rural New England area of New South Wales, Australia gathered data about 3,738 people who formed the potential social networks of these residents. This study found that the wider, potential, social networks of rural nursing home residents comprised approximately 17 people and involved a wide range of family and friends. However, their actual social networks consisted of approximately two females, daughters and friends, who had high-quality relationships with the resident and who visited at least once per month. In contrast to previous assertions that nursing home residents have robust support from their family and friends, the actual social networks of these residents have dwindled considerably over recent years, which may place them at risk of social isolation. This study has implications for nursing home policy and practice and recommendations for addressing the risk of social isolation that rural nursing home residents face are made.

Older people experiencing dementia are twice as likely to fall with consequences of serious injury, reduction in everyday activity, admission to long-term care and mortality. Carers of people with dementia are themselves at greater risk of physical and mental ill health, which increases as the dementia progresses. Unsurprisingly, carer burden also increases when a care-recipient falls. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of falling of community-living older people with dementia and their carers. A qualitative approach was taken using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Nine older people with predominantly Alzheimer's disease and their ten carers were recruited from a large mental health National Health Service trust and participated in one-to-one and joint in-depth interviews. Three dyads participated in repeat interviews. Three focus groups were also carried out, with nine older people experiencing memory problems and 12 carers from a local Alzheimer's Society branch. The antecedents, falls events and consequences of falls were discussed. This paper reports specifically on the impact of falls on the caring relationship. Three themes emerged: ‘learning as you go’, ‘we're always together’, ‘nobody was interested’. The findings demonstrate how falling accentuates the impact of dementia on the dyad. Spouse-carers' discussion of their own falls emphasise the need for joint assessment of health and wellbeing to reduce carer burden and preserve the couplehood of the dyad.

In India, although notions of ageing and care are changing, there is a continued preference among families for home-based care of elderly relatives. The legislative policies and cultural practices that shape this preference will be examined in this paper with specific reference to aged-care facilities and the 2007 Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act. Using qualitative data from a study on dementia care in urban India it will be shown how the Act and old-age homes are understood and experienced by Indian families and key service providers. In juxtaposing policy and practice it will be argued that while notions of care are being redefined by processes like migration and urbanisation, the preference for home care remains, indicating that existing services need to be re-oriented and expanded to support families in providing this care.

Studies of the relationship between retirement and subsequent health, including longevity, have produced mixed findings. One reason may be that these studies have not taken attitudes toward retirement into account. In the current study we examined whether attitudes toward retirement can impact longevity. The cohort consisted of 394 participants who were followed for 23 years. As predicted, participants with positive attitudes toward retirement at the start of the study lived significantly longer than those with negative attitudes toward retirement. The positive attitudes-toward-retirement group had a median survival advantage of 4.9 years. This survival advantage remained after controlling for relevant covariates, including age, functional health, socio-economic status, and whether employed or retired. Our findings suggest that psychological planning for retirement is as important as the more traditional forms of planning.

As in other ageing populations, dementia, musculoskeletal conditions and cardiovascular disease affect a high proportion of Australians aged over 65 years, and the prevalence of these conditions increases significantly with age. People with these conditions may need to access a range of care services over time to enable them to remain living in their homes. Many eventually need to move into a nursing home.

In contrast to the considerable recent literature on the funding of long-term care systems for population ageing, studies on the care pathways followed by individuals are much less common. This paper explores the effect of disease on use of community care services and nursing homes over time, focusing on people with dementia, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal conditions. Care-use transitions are identified using linked administrative client data for a cohort of 33,300 community-living Australians who had an aged care assessment in 2003-04 and who had not previously used aged care services.

The different symptoms and courses of diseases meant that the patterns of aged care service use, both in terms of care services accessed and the timing of this access, varied considerably for people with different health conditions. These differences persisted across a range of client characteristics. In particular, people with dementia or cerebrovascular disease as their main health condition were more likely to enter nursing home care than those with heart disease or musculoskeletal conditions.

The variation in use of aged care services according to disease group need to be taken into account in any projections of demand for aged care. Such projections must allow for predictions of disease prevalence, or else they will yield inaccurate predictions of demand for both community and residential care.