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The poor health of close others was said to have had a considerable impact on the QoL of just over one-quarter (21). This was due to worry about a spouse’s or another close relative’s health, or the burden of providing care which can be most traumatic in the case of someone with Alzheimer’s: My quality of life is overwhelmingly . . altered, and focused by my wife’s . . problems . . I’ve often thought. I look after three people. My wife used to look after me, she used to feed me, she used to do my laundry .

A model of QoL emerged from respondents’ descriptions of the quality of their lives. The themes forming the foundations for a good QoL which emerged from both the open-ended survey responses and the in-depth follow-up interviews overlapped considerably (Bowling and Gabriel 2004). The main themes were: ^ good social relationships with family, friends and neighbours ^ good home and neighbourhood (safe, good facilities including transport) ^ positive outlook and psychological well-being 17 GROWING OLDER ^ activities/hobbies (performed alone) ^ good health and functional ability ^ social roles and engaging in social and voluntary activities (with others) ^ adequate income ^ independence and control over one’s life.

IIIm 53 27 29 39 35 30 36 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2 focuses on men aged 30 to 65 (65 is the age of receipt of a state pension for men in the UK), showing rates of paid employment for two different age groups. Concentrating on the oldest group first, for the white English group just over a third of men aged 50 to 65 were not in paid employment. Figures are higher for all of the ethnic minority groups, except for the Chinese group, with particularly high rates in the Pakistani (70 per cent not in paid employment) and Bangladeshi groups (with only one in seven in paid employment).