Those 85 years of age and older are the fastest growing subpopulation in the United States. Because they represent a very small proportion of the population (just 1% in 1980), the oldest old have not been studied until recently. Much of the interest in this group is related to their growth (over 50% per decade in the past 50 years) coupled with their disproportionate use of public resources, particularly health and social services. Women are strikingly overrepresented among the oldest old, with a gender ratio of approximately 44 males for every 100 females age 85 and older.

Analysis of the kin support networks of rural elderly, resident in Staffordshire and Hampshire, indicated that the most important factor affecting both the patterns and relationships of the kin network is the residential mobility of the nuclear family and its members. The study revealed the importance of recognising three broad groupings of elderly: the indigenous aged, who typically possess an extended local kin network; the retired inmigrants who had relocated their households to be near kin; and the retired inmigrants without nearby kin. When these groupings are introduced the importance of the dichotomy between local/non-local kin and between former kin-separation/non-kin-separation becomes apparent. These dichotomies hold important implications for the family relationships of the rural elderly, for their use of the kin network and of the formal support system, and for their interaction with the wider community.

The transition from independent living to a residential home or to sheltered housing challenges the resilience of all elderly people. This paper reports a study which used longitudinal design, within which 455 Dutch people were interviewed twice a year over a five-year period. Drawn from five different groups, the sample represented people at different stages of independence, ranging from those who needed no assistance through to a group of new residents in an elderly persons' home. The focus was on preparedness for and the adaptation experience of relocation to a dependent setting. A battery of psychological, social and medical measures was employed to produce serial data which were subjected to discriminant analysis. The dominant finding is that attitudes to dependency are central to the maintenance of self-esteem and well-being.

The Swedish population is one of the oldest in the world with the consequence that the country has a very high proportion of long-term institutional beds to meet the care needs of elderly people. Studies of the pathways to institutional care showed that alternative home care options had been given too little consideration and that a quarter of residents could have been satisfactorily supported in the community. The Sundsvall Intervention Programme was based upon a distribution of these research findings to institutions and practitioners, followed by a joint training programme on assessment and resource allocation. The first phase of the intervention yielded an unrealised potential for elderly people to remain at home; but it met continuing resistance from professionals and kin. The exercise indicates the need to combine service innovation with locally relevant systems which engage all of the interested parties – elderly people, their relatives, care providers, service managers and politicians.