ABSTRACT
A higher proportion of the UK population is over 80 than ever before and projections suggest that both this proportion and the real numbers of over-eighties will continue to increase up to the end of the century. This paper looks at the question of dependency of people in this age-group living in the community – and even after 80 most people are in the community. It (1) briefly considers the implications of the interpretation of longevity as a social problem; (2) examines the measures of dependency most commonly used in UK studies; (3) provides evidence to suggest that some of these measures are misleading and (4) discusses some of the implications of these hypotheses.
