ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the more important barriers to generalisation about middle-aged health. It discusses the relationship between age and health as though it remained unchanged in the face of the massive economic, social, cultural and political changes that have taken place over the past hundred years. The chapter also discusses the relationship between middle age and health without considering differences between the sexes as it would be to do so without paying attention to changes over the course of time. It remains extremely difficult to generalise about the relationship between age and health, and especially about that between age, decline and individual responsibility. The chapter explores the combination of social stigmatisation, psychological adjustment and physical decline that undermined the health of middle-aged women, and so widened the gap between them and their male contemporaries.
