The purpose is to give an overview of the extent, range and nature of existing definitions of the concept ‘ageing in place’. Providing such an overview may be helpful, for policy makers, researchers, communities and service providers, to make sense of the versatility and uses of the concept, and allow the improvement and increase the success of efforts to contribute to the quality of life of older people. The overview was created using Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review methodology. Out of 3,692 retrieved articles, 34 met the inclusion criteria. These studies concentrate on the following five key themes concerning ‘ageing in place’: ‘ageing in place’ in relation to place, to social networks, to support, to technology and to personal characteristics. Each of these key themes consists of other aspects, like physical place and attachment to place for the keyword place. This study concludes that the concept ‘ageing in place’ is broad and can be viewed from different (i.e. five) key themes. A more thorough understanding of ‘ageing in place’ provides knowledge about the existing key themes and aspects. These findings might provide practical support for professionals and governments when they develop their policies about ‘ageing in place’ integrally and to develop fit policies.

Having access and skills to use social technology, i.e. social internet use, social media and social applications, are considered as being vital to online social connection. Whilst evidence exists around facilitators and barriers to general technology use, evidence is limited with regards to the motivators, skills and tangible offline benefits older technology users experience with social technology. Therefore, this study used a qualitative, exploratory method to understand older adults’ experiences of using social technology to connect with others. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 older adults (65+ years) across England, Scotland and Wales. Despite having access to social technology for social connection, and using this technology regularly, multiple barriers impacted motivators and skills for use, namely perceived self-efficacy and fear, the culture of online communication, absence of social capital and physical functioning. Some of these barriers of social technology use are reminiscent of barriers of wider technology use and emphasise the importance of addressing these barriers for digital exclusion, as well as social connection. However, some of these barriers were specific to social technology use and should be considered when providing guidance or interventions to increase older adults’ online social connection. Social connection was a clear tangible outcome to social technology use, and individuals discussed the benefits of using social technology, particularly visual communication tools, for online connection.

Aboriginal Elders in Australia are recognised as having an important role as community leaders and cultural knowledge holders. However, the effects of colonisation and institutional racism mean Elders also experience significant social and economic disadvantage and poor health outcomes. There has been a systemic lack of attention to the worldviews and priorities of Aboriginal people as they age. In this article, we detail the findings of a qualitative study using a localised Aboriginal Elder-informed methodology that involved interviews and focus groups with 22 Aboriginal Elders in the remote town of Walgett on what ageing well means to them. This study was undertaken as part of a long-term partnership between a unique community-controlled Elders organisation and a university. The findings illuminate the barriers and enablers to ageing well for Aboriginal people in Walgett and elsewhere, and demonstrate the value to research, policy and service delivery of listening to and learning from Elders, centring Indigenous knowledges and worldviews, and bringing a more holistic conceptualisation of wellbeing to the understanding of what it means to age well.

The relationship between living alone, loneliness and social isolation, and how they are associated with health remain contentious. We sought to explore typologies based on shared experiences of loneliness, social isolation and living alone using Latent Class Analysis and determine how these groups may differ in terms of their physical and mental health. We used Wave 7 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N = 7,032; mean age = 67.3) and responses to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness scale, household composition, participation in social/societal activities plus frequency of contact with friends, family and relatives for the Latent Class Analysis. The optimal number of groups was identified using model-fit criteria. The socio-demographic characteristics of groups and health outcomes were explored using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. We identified a six-cluster typology: Group 1, no loneliness or isolation; Group 2, moderate loneliness; Group 3, living alone; Group 4, moderate isolation; Group 5, moderate loneliness, living alone; and Group 6, high loneliness, moderate isolation (with high likelihood of living alone). Groups experiencing loneliness and/or isolation were more likely to report poorer physical and mental health even after adjusting for socio-demographic confounders, this was particularly notable for Group 6. Our results indicate that different typologies of living alone, loneliness and isolation can be identified using data-driven techniques, and can be differentiated by the number and severity of issues they experience.

An engaged lifestyle is seen as an important component of successful ageing. Many older adults with high participation in social and leisure activities report positive wellbeing, a fact that fuelled the original activity theory and that continues to influence researchers, theorists and practitioners. This study's purpose is to review the conceptualisation and measurement of activity among older adults and the associations reported in the gerontological literature between specific dimensions of activity and wellbeing. We searched published studies that focused on social and leisure activity and wellbeing, and found 42 studies in 44 articles published between 1995 and 2009. They reported from one to 13 activity domains, the majority reporting two or three, such as informal, formal and solitary, or productive versus leisure. Domains associated with subjective wellbeing, health or survival included social, leisure, productive, physical, intellectual, service and solitary activities. Informal social activity has accumulated the most evidence of an influence on wellbeing. Individual descriptors such as gender or physical functioning sometimes moderate these associations, while contextual variables such as choice, meaning or perceived quality play intervening roles. Differences in definitions and measurement make it difficult to draw inferences about this body of evidence on the associations between activity and wellbeing. Activity theory serves as shorthand for these associations, but gerontology must better integrate developmental and psychological constructs into a refined, comprehensive activity theory.

While social connectedness is heralded as a key enabler of positive health and social outcomes for older people, rarely have they themselves had the opportunity to express their views about the concept. Working with a diverse group of Pacific, Māori, Asian and New Zealand European older adults, this paper explores what matters to older people when discussing social connectedness? We draw from individual, in-depth interviews with 44 older adults, and three group interviews comprising 32 older adults. Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analyses. The three themes identified were: getting out of the house, ability to connect and feelings of burden. Fundamental to social connectedness was participants’ desire to be recognised as resourceful agents able to foster relationships on the basis of mutual respect. Social connectedness was conceptualised as multi-levelled: relating to interpersonal relationships as much as neighbourhoods and wider society. Alongside these similarities we also discuss important differences. Participants preferred to socialise with people from similar cultural backgrounds where they shared taken-for-granted social customs and knowledges. This is in the context where racism, poverty and inequalities clearly impeded already minoritised participants’ sense of social connection. Key structural ways to improve social connectedness should focus on factors that enable cohesion between levels of connection, including stable neighbourhoods serviced with accessible public transport, liveable pensions and inclusivity of cultural diversity.

By 2050, the number of people in Australia aged over 85 is expected to quadruple. Yet, from a socio-psychological research perspective, little is known about the experiences of people who continue to live at home during late old age (85 years and over), a period when challenging problems associated with ageing escalate and threaten to compromise independence. Utilising a qualitative methodology, the subjective lived experience of 23 very old adults (19 women, four men, with a mean age of 90.7 years, range 85–101 years) who live independently in rural Australia were elicited. The aims of the research were to understand their thoughts and feelings about ageing in place at home, and what psychological, social and practical adaptive strategies they employ to cope with difficulties encountered during very old age. In-depth interviews were analysed in an interpretive phenomenological tradition of thematic analysis, interpretation of paradigm cases and interpretation of exemplars. Participants described how historical, cultural and environmental contexts shaped their everyday thoughts, activities and what was meaningful for them. The findings add to our understanding of the largely unnarrated lives of the very old, suggest a need for person-centred home-care assessment processes and aid significant others (family, friends and neighbours) to understand better what very old adults need to live independently.

This study focuses on the recent increase in the use of older celebrities in cosmetics advertising. It asks what kinds of ideas and values these images may attribute to discourses of ageing. Drawing on a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) perspective, this study focuses on L'Oréal UK and Ireland Web advertisements, examining how these advertisements use older celebrities to redefine/reposition ageing and exploring how they relate to the notion of ‘successful ageing’. In these advertisements, using cosmetics is presented as a positive, empowering choice. The advertisements simultaneously promote new discourses about ageing in which older women's sexuality is presented as a form of power. However, the analysis shows that the underlying discourse pathologises ageing and presents ageing as something which can be evaded through the consumption of cosmetics. It thus turns ageing into a choice, but one where the ‘right choice’ aligns with neo-liberal ideas about ageing well. For women, decision-making about ageing seems to be a never-ending process that requires constant construction, promoted through the older celebrity's sexualisation. Women are expected to always look good and present the best versions of themselves, even at the latest stages of life, which reproduces and legitimises sexist and ageist expectations about women's appearances, including the expectations that for older women to remain visible and attractive, they must hide outward signs of ageing.

This paper examines the ways in which older people's residential and nursing homes can constitute heteronormative environments – social spaces in which the same-sex attractions and desires of residents are disregarded in the provision of everyday care. The aim of this discussion is to examine the synergies and differences between older lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adults' expectations for future care home provision and the expectations of care staff and managers in providing residential services to older people with diverse sexual backgrounds. We present qualitative evidence from research into the provision of care environments in Wales. In this paper, we present findings from two cohorts: first, from five focus groups with care and nursing staff and managers; and second, from 29 semi-structured interviews with older LGB adults (50–76 years) residing in urban and rural locations across Wales. We argue that residential care environments can constitute heterosexualised spaces in which LGB identities are neglected in comparison to the needs and preferences of other residents. To this extent, we discuss how care staff and managers can be more attentive and responsive to the sexual biographies of all residents and argue against the separation of care and sexual orientation in practice.

Interest in co-research with older adults has grown in the past 20 years, yet few published studies have addressed why and how older people have been involved as partners in research. This article presents a systematic review of the literature, examining the aims and challenges of co-research and the ways in which older adults can be involved in research. Systematic searches covering several databases were conducted, yielding a total of 3,293 articles, with 27 papers reviewed which involved older people as co-researchers across more than one stage of the research cycle. We find that co-research with older people offers improved understandings of the issues facing older people; more inclusive and responsive policy, practice and service design; and opportunities for co-researchers to develop new skills whilst giving voice to marginalised groups of older people. The analysis highlights the different ways in which older adults can be involved across phases of research, and identifies ethical, methodological and practical challenges encountered in the process. Involving older adults as co-researchers, while labour intensive and practically challenging, holds promise as an underdeveloped resource for social gerontology, as well as older people themselves. The paper identifies four pathways for improving and extending co-research: developing diversified structures of involvement, supporting co-researchers, embedding research rigour and ensuring co-ownership of change.