Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T01:15:39.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Well, the Mentally Ill, the Old and the Old Old: a Community Survey of Elderly Persons in London

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

J. R. M. Copeland ,
M. J. Kelleher ,
A. M. R. Smith  and
P. Devlin
P. Devlin
Affiliation:
US-UK Cross-national (Diagnostic) Project, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5, and University of Liverpool, Department of Psychiatry, Royal Liverpool Hospital, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool L6g 3BX.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A random sample of 396 elderly people living at home in the Greater London community was interviewed by psychiatrists using standardised assessments. The sample was divided into the old (aged 65–74) and the old/old (aged 75 and over). The proportions with mental illness were identified and excluded from the sample in order to allow comparison of mentally normal elderly persons between these age groups. Surprisingly few differences emerge. No difference in educational attainment appeared, but there was a small diminution (P < 0.01) in intellectual function to clinical testing, in the old/old. Leisure interests were maintained and high level life satisfaction, health and happiness were claimed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 417 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Gurland, B. J., Copeland, J. R. M., Kelleher, M. J., Kuriansky, J., Sharpe, L. and Dean, L., The Mind and Mood of Ageing: The Mental Health Problems of the Community Elderly in New York and London. Haworth Press, New York, Croom Helm, London, 1983.Google Scholar

2 Abrams, M., Beyond Three-Score and Ten, a First Report on a Survey of the Elderly Age Concern, London, 1978.Google Scholar

3 National Council on the Aging. The Myth and Reality of Aging in America. Harris Poll, Washington DC, 1975.Google Scholar

4 Abrams, M., 1978, op. cit.Google Scholar

5 Cornoni-Huntley, J. C., Foley, D. J., White, L. R., Suzman, R., Berman, L. F., Evans, D. A. and Wallace, R. B., Epidemiology of disability in the oldest old: methodological issues and preliminary findings. Millbank Memorial Fund, Quarterly, 63. 2 (1985), pp. 350–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Gurland, B. J. et al. , 1983, op. cit.Google Scholar

7 Gurland, B. J. et al. , 1983Google Scholar, ibid.

8 Copeland, J. R. M., Kelleher, M. J., Kellett, J. M., Gourlay, A. J., Gurland, B. J., Fleiss, J. L. and Sharpe, L., A semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of diagnosis and mental state in the elderly. The Geriatric Mental State Schedule. 1. Development and reliability. Psychological Medicine, 6 (1976), pp. 439–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Copeland, J. R. M. and Gurland, B. J., ‘Evaluation of diagnostic methods: and international comparison’, in (Isaacs, A. D. and Post, F. (eds.), Studies in Geriatric Psychiatry. J Wiley, Chichester, 1978, pp. 189–209.Google Scholar

10 Gurland, B. J. et al. , 1983, op. cit.Google Scholar

11 Annual Abstract of Greater London Statistics, Volume II. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1976.

12 Copeland, J. R. M., Dewey, M. E., Griffiths-Jones, H. M., Computerised psychiatric diagnostic system and case nomenclature for elderly subjects: GMS and AGECAT. Psychological Medicine (in press).Google Scholar

13 Copeland, J. R. M. et al., ibid.

14 Brown, G. W. and Harris, T. O., Social Origins of Depression. Tavistock Publications, London, 1978.Google Scholar

15 Cooper, J. E., Kendell, R. E., Gurland, B. J., Sharpe, L., Copeland, J. R. M. and Simon, R.Psychiatric Diagnosis in New York and London: A Comparative Study of Mental Hospital Admissions. Maudsley Monograph Series, No. 20, Oxford University Press, London, 1972.Google Scholar

16 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMIII) 3rd ed. American Psychiatric Association, Washington D.C., 1980.Google Scholar

17 Copeland, J. R. M. and Gurland, B. J., ‘International comparative studies’, in Arie, T. (ed.), Recent Advances in Psychogeriatrics. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1985, pp. 175–195.Google Scholar

18 Cowan, D. W., Wright, P. M., Gourlay, A. J., Smith, A., Barron, G., De Gruchy, J., Copeland, J. R. M., Kelleher, M. J., and Kellett, J. M., A comparative psychometric assessment of psychogeriatric and geriatric patients. British Journal Of Psychiatry, 127 (1975), pp. 33–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

19 Searle, R. T., A community based follow-up of some suspected cases of elderly dementia in an interim report. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 37 (1984), pp. A20–21.Google Scholar

20 Abrams, M., 1978, op. cit.Google Scholar

21 National Council on the Aging, 1975, op. cit.

22 Abrams, M., 1978, op. cit.Google Scholar

23 Taylor, R. and Ford, G., Lifestyle and ageing. Ageing and Society, 1, 3 (1981), pp. 329–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Williams, R. H. and Wirths, C. G., Lives Through The Years. Aldine-Atherton, Chicago, 1965.Google Scholar

25 Cooper, B. and Sosna, U., Psychische-Erkrankung in der Altenbevolkerung. Eine epidemiologische Feldstudie in Mannheim. Nervenarzt, 54 (1983), 239–249.Google Scholar

26 Gurland, B. J. et al. , 1983, op. cit.Google Scholar