Assessing changes in neighbourhood satisfaction among older age adults in England using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Scholars from a variety of disciplines have become interested in neighbourhood satisfaction as a gateway to understanding relationships between ‘neighbourhood factors’, ‘individual characteristics’ and ‘neighbourhood perceptions’ in shaping residents’ attitudes to their local area. As recent studies have emphasised, the global search for ‘age-friendly cities’ prompts exploration of the drivers of change in neighbourhood satisfaction that could be critical to delivering targeted policy interventions to help improve physical and mental health and subjective wellbeing of older age adults. This study uses a growth curve model to examine associations between change in neighbourhood satisfaction over time and factors such as neighbourhood deprivation, social engagement, relationship status, health and wellbeing and socioeconomic status using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, 2002-03 to 2014-15. The study finds, in line with previous empirical research, that neighbourhood deprivation is a key associate of neighbourhood satisfaction, but also the role of moving status, social activity, relationship status, quality of life, age, sex and country of birth are contributing factors. The findings suggest policymakers and public health professionals need to focus on a combination of short- and long-term, area-based and people-focused policies to address structural inequalities and deprivation to improve neighbourhood satisfaction. Policy interventions should especially focus on addressing the needs of vulnerable groups of older age adults including those who have recently moved, disengage with social activities, living alone, with lower levels of mental wellbeing, older, male, born abroad and living in areas of higher levels of neighbourhood deprivation

Ethnic Density and Mental Health: Does it Matter Whether the Ethnic Density is Co-ethnic or Multi-ethnic and How Important is Change in Ethnic Density?

The ethnic density thesis suggests a protective health benefit for ethnic minorities living in places with higher concentration of co-ethnic residents. This paper aims to make a step change in the examination of this thesis by proposing ethnic diversity rather than co-ethnic density will be more protective for mental health. The paper proposes ethnic diversity could be a community asset that benefits the health of all people in a neighbourhood regardless of their own ethnic group. Individual data is taken from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, 2009–2019 linked to aggregate data from the 2001 and 2011 Censuses to test the association between co-ethnic density, ethnic diversity and mental health using the General Health Questionnaire 12-item scale. The paper takes a novel approach by measuring pre-existing (in 2001) and change in (2001–2011) co-ethnic density and ethnic diversity. Moderating effects of individual ethnic group, neighbourhood deprivation and perceived social cohesion are tested. Results show lower pre-existing co-ethnic density is related to lower mental health amongst the White British ethnic group but not in most ethnic minority groups. Greater pre-existing ethnic diversity in more deprived neighbourhoods is associated with better mental health regardless of individual ethnic group. A point of contention in the findings is no association between change in ethnic diversity and mental health

Life course socioeconomic position and general and oral health in later life: Assessing the role of social causation and health selection pathways

Objective: To examine the pathways between life course socioeconomic position (SEP) and general and oral health, assessing the role of two competing theories, social causation and health selection, on a representative sample of individuals aged 50 years and over in England. // Methods: Secondary analysis from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Wave 3 data (n = 8659). Structural equation models estimated the social causation pathways from childhood SEP to adult self-rated general health and total tooth loss, and the health selection pathways from childhood health to adult SEP. // Results: There were direct and indirect (primarily via education, but also adult SEP, and behavior) pathways from childhood SEP to both health outcomes in older adulthood. There was a direct pathway from childhood health to adult SEP, but no indirect pathway via education. The social causation path total effect estimate was three times larger for self-rated general health and four times larger for total tooth loss than the health selection path respective estimates. // Conclusions: The relationship between SEP and health is bidirectional, but with a clearly stronger role for the social causation pathway

Comparing subjective and objective neighbourhood deprivation and their association with health over time among older adults in England

The importance of neighbourhood on individual health is widely documented. Less is known about the relative role of objective and subjective reports of neighbourhood conditions, how their effect on health changes as people age, and whether they moderate each other’s impact on health. This study uses the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to determine whether older adults report worse self-rated health as they age, and whether this differs between objective and subjective measures of neighbourhood. ELSA data contain 53,988 person-years across six waves collected biannually between 2002 and 03 and 2012 and 13. Objective neighbourhood conditions are measured by the 2004 Index of Multiple Deprivation, and subjective neighbourhood conditions are captured by a summative neighbourhood dissatisfaction score. We find both objective and subjective neighbourhood composite scores independently predict poor health. There is no change over time in the probability of reporting poor health by baseline objective or subjective neighbourhood scores, suggesting neighbourhood effects do not compound as older adults age. There is no moderating effect of area dissatisfaction on the relationship between neighbourhood deprivation and health. The findings provide little support for causal neighbourhood effects operating in later life and indicate different causal pathways through which objective and subjective neighbourhood deprivation impact on health

Exploring Ethnicity through National Datasets

This video features presentations from three researchers at UK data resources who discuss ways of exploring ethnicity through national datasets. Stephen Jivraj and Momoko Nishikido examine how an ethnic group question was introduced to the Census form and how it has evolved. They present data showing the growth of diversity in England and Wales over the last 30 years and challenge notions of increased ethnic segregation. Lucinda Platt discusses using longitudinal surveys to study ethnicity, focusing on using Understanding Society, MCS, the ONS LS and Next Steps to examine questions of identity, aspiration and social mobility. Kitty Lymperopulou discusses using the Ministry of Justice Data First datasets to research ethnicity and the justice system. These presentations were recorded for a webinar hosted by the Data Resources Training Network, titled Exploring Ethnicity through National Datasets Webinar, which took place on 19 September 2025