Research Projects

Life Histories and Health: Babyboomers in Australia and England

Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2010 to 2012 (DP1096778)

Chief Investigators
Professor Hal Kendig, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney
Professor Julie Byles, Research Centre for Gender, University of Newcastle

Partner Investigators
Professor James Nazroo, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

Collaborators
Prof. Gita Mishra, School of Population Health, University of Queensland

Dr Kate O’Loughlin, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney

Project Manager
Dr Jack Noone, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney


Research Aims
This project will examine how life experiences of the baby boom cohort (born 1946-1950) influence health, productivity, well-being, and pension and service use at ages 60 to 64 years in 2010-11.
We aim to determine how:

1. Health inequalities and health actions in late middle-age are influenced by accumulated variations in family, occupational, and economic exposures from childhood onwards.
2. Socially structured life-course experiences, health outcomes, and health behaviours vary between men and women.
3. Australian and English life outcomes reflect different societal and policy developments since WWII.
4. Migration impacts on life-course outcomes by comparing native-born Australians, native-born English, English migrants to Australia, and other migrants to Australia.

Major Data Resources
A new life history component linked to the NSW 45 and Up Study; and a parallel life history component in the English Longitudinal Survey on Ageing (ELSA).

Outcomes
The project will identify and enhance understanding of:

• The influences of socio-economic disadvantage earlier in the life course and during critical periods of history for potentially accumulating inequalities in health, work opportunities, and well-being as both women and men grow older.
• The interplay between the socio-economic determinants of health, e.g. between family and parenting, employment and workplaces, that potentially can be improved through individual action and government strategies.
• How improving health for ageing Australians can increase productivity and limit needs for health services during the unprecedented period of ageing that lies ahead.
• What is distinctly Australian about the post-war experience through comparisons between Australia and England, in light of our immigration program and socio-economic developments.

Ageing Baby Boomers in Australia (ABBA): Informing Actions for Better Retirement

Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2008 to 2010 (LP0882748)

Partner Organisations

• National Seniors Australia (Peter Matwijiw, Director, Productive Ageing Centre, NSA)
• AARP (Josh Collett, Vice President, International Liaison, AARP, USA)

Chief Investigators
Professor Hal Kendig, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney
Professor Yvonne Wells, Lincoln Centre for Research on Ageing, La Trobe University
Dr Kate O’Loughlin, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney
Professor David De Vaus, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Queensland
Professor Deborah Black, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney

Research Staff/ Project Manager
Dr Jack Noone, Research Fellow, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney

PhD Students
John Van Holsteyn, La Trobe University
Martin Snoke, University of Sydney

ABBA Research Aims
Australia is at a critical turning point because the massive baby boom cohort – the 5.5 million people born between 1946 and 1965 – has begun to turn 60 years of age. The ABBA project will generate an innovative and comprehensive body of knowledge that informs constructive action for better retirement.

The aims are:

1. To determine the diverse pathways, timing, and processes of retirement from paid work, and their consequences for adjustment, well being, and unpaid productivity after retirement.
2. To identify key factors in retirement preparedness and its impacts on quality of life outcomes after retirement.
3. To identify individuals’ expectations for, and experiences of, retirement and the active strategies by which they attempt to achieve their retirement goals.
4. To assess how expectations for retirement are shaped by the economic, social, and policy context in Australia as contrasted with the United States.

Major Data Resources

• The national, longitudinal Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey from 2001 to 2010.
• A national telephone survey in 2009 on retirement preparedness and experiences.
• Focus groups with people before and after retirement as well as policy makers and industry leaders.
• Comparative survey findings on retirement expectations in Australia and the United States

ABBA Outcomes

• Baby boomers will be provided with evidence on ways in which their own actions in late middle age can increase their chances of having satisfying, independent, and healthy lives after retirement.
• Workers, employers and governments will be informed on key factors that enable people to work longer when they choose to do so.
• Public stereotypes will be challenged by findings showing variability among baby boomers.
• Governments and communities will have knowledge on baby boomers’ expectations to guide their responses to societal ageing.
• The findings will reinforce a vision of positive ageing and the opportunities of an ageing Australia

Melbourne Longitudinal Study of Health Ageing (MELSHA) Program

The MELSHA study is an ongoing longitudinal study of older people in collaboration with Professor Colette Browning of Monash University.

The baseline survey for the MELSHA study consisted of 1000 people aged 65 years and over living in non-institutional settings and was conducted in metropolitan Melbourne in 1994.

The study includes collaborators from Sydney, Monash and LaTrobe Universities. This ongoing study has been funded by a large number of grants and supporting agencies including the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.

In 2008 it was funded for a further 3 years by the NHMRC, and by the DVA in 2009.

Economic, Environmental, and Social Psychological Evaluation of Independent Senior Living Alternatives in Australia (Seniors Living)

The Seniors Living project examines the economic, environmental, social-psychological, and regulatory issues within the aged accommodation industry originally led by Associate Professor David Kennedy.

The study focuses principally on the not-for-profit and the for-profit retirement village industry, and compares the findings from the retirement village residents to those from seniors living in both age-restricted accommodation, and their own home, whether it be owned or rented.

Significant components of the project are proceeding to plan, with details broken out below according to various research groups/teams working on this grant. The Seniors Living project is conducted in collaboration from both the Work & Health team led by Professor Bohle and Ageing & Health and Work & Health teams.

Opportunity and Disadvantage

In collaboration with Professor Ann Harding of NATSEM, the ARC Discovery Project Grant studies the opportunity and disadvantages: Differences in well being among Australia's adults and children at a small area level.

The 45 & Up Home and Community Care Study

In collaboration with Professor Louisa Jorm of University of Western Sydney and Professor Julie Byles of University of Newcastle, the 45 & up Study explores met and unmet needs for home care in NSW funded by the NSW Department of Ageing Disability and Home Care.

Research Network in Ageing Well

We work closely with the ARC/NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well, which has its hub here at the University of Sydney and the University of Sydney Centre for Education and Research on Ageing at Concord Hospital and other faculties in the University.