Objectives: A longitudinal study examining age discrimination as a risk factor of frailty among a population of older adults aged 65 years and overusing data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Results: The result of the study show that age discrimination was significantly associated with risk of frailty, poor health and risk of loneliness among older adults aged 65 years and over. The findings also demonstrate the higher risk of frailty among women compared to men and thus, the reason stakeholders should consider this gender disparity in designing and planning frailty prevention strategies. Additionally, the findings show that future studies would be needed to examine the relationship between reported age discrimination and mental health. Social interventions such as the introduction of legal frameworks and legislation, awareness to combat ageing stereotypes and a review of age-biased protocols in healthcare can help to reduce age discrimination against older adults and to foster healthy ageing among older individuals.
Secondment(s)(Months), co-Supervisors: FU (2m), Dr. Yvonne Van Zaalen; UNECE (2.733m), Vitalija Gaucaite-Wittich: The first secondment was geared towards engaging in frailty assessment/management research in the context of ageism. The second secondment was geared towards developing skills to address public policy.
