Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Using an index of wellbeing for older people in small areas of Australia to assist identifying services required

  • Published:
Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstracts

For older people, place is crucial as it is where support networks, social relationships and family are. Older people develop a sense of belonging to their local community through participation and place is strongly linked to personal histories. For older people, ageing in their own home also allows for continuity of relationships and informal support networks in the area. While there are significant benefits of ageing in place, for older people with low wellbeing, the provision of services is going to be essential to allow them to age in place. Therefore, this article aims to identify areas where older people have low wellbeing using an index of wellbeing developed using a range of data; and to show how the domains and indicators can be used to identify why older people in an area have low wellbeing. This analysis can then be used to help to identify what types of services are required to improve wellbeing in an area of low wellbeing best.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

All indicators that were modelled or were open data were provided in the online maps. Some indicators were derived from special data requests and are not available through the online maps here. https://canberra.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=071c7b8e4ff54eff811b944e66de97a5

Abbreviations

PCA:

Principal Components Analysis

HILDA:

Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia

AIHW:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

OECD:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

SEIFA:

Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas

ABS:

Australian Bureau of Statistics

References

  • Abello, A., Cassells, R., Daly, A., D’Souza, G., & Miranti, R. (2016). Youth social exclusion in Australian Communities: A new index. Social Indicators Research, 128(2), 635–660.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, P., & Sapsford, R. (2005). Living on the margins: older people, place and social exclusion. Policy Studies, 26(1), 29–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2013). Population Projections, Australia, 2012 (base) to 2101, Cat No. 3222.0

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2019). Family, Household and Income Unit Variables, 2014, Cat No. 1286.0.

  • Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2007). Older Australians at a Glance (4th ed.). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. (1962). Investment in human capital: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Political Economy, 70(5, Part 2), 9-49.

  • Bradshaw, J., Noble, M., Bloor, K., Huby, M., McLennan, D., Rhodes, D., et al. (2009). A child well-being index at small area level in England. Child Indicators Research, 2(2), 201–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bridge, C., Phibbs, P., Kendig, H., Mathews, M., & Cooper, B. (2008). The costs and benefits of using private housing as the 'home base' for care for older people: secondary data analysis, AHURI Final Report No. 115. Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited.

  • Brotherhood of St Laurence. (2009). The Brotherhood’s social barometer: Living the second fifty years. Fitzroy Victoria: Brotherhood of St Laurence.

  • Burr, J. A., Choi, N. G., Mutchler, J. E., & Caro, F. G. (2005). Caregiving and volunteering: are private and public helping behaviors linked? The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60(5), S247–S256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clifton, J. (2009). Ageing and well-being in an international context. Politics of Ageing Working Paper No. 3, United Kingdom: Institute for Public Policy Research.

  • Conahan, J.M., Silverstein, N.M., & Fitzgerald, K. (2004). Aging in place at Harbor Point: Outreach follow-up of older adults living in independent mixed - income apartments. Boston: Gerontology Institute and College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts.

  • Crystal, S., & Shea, D. (1990). Cumulative advantage, cumulative disadvantage, and inequality among elderly people. The Gerontologist, 30(4), 437–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davey, J., & Davies, M. (2006). Work in later life - Opportunity or threat? Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 27, 20–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, K., & Tanton, R. (2013). Validation of spatial microsimulation models. In R. Tanton & K. Edwards (Eds.), Spatial Microsimulation: A Reference Guide for Users (pp. 249–258). Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faulkner, D. (2007). The older population and changing housing careers: implications for housing provision. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 26(4), 152–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forster, C. (2004). Australian Cities: Continuity and Change (3rd ed). Melbourne: Oxford University Press

  • Goldfeld, S., Woolcock, G., Katz, I., Tanton, R., Brinkman, S., O’Connor, E., et al. (2015). Neighbourhood effects influencing early childhood development: Conceptual model and trial measurement methodologies from the kids in communities study. Social Indicators Research, 120(1), 197–212.

  • Gong, H., McNamara, J., Vidyattama, Y., Miranti, R., Tanton, R., Harding, A., & Kendig, H. (2012). Developing spatial microsimulation estimates of small area advantage and disadvantage among older Australians. Population, Space and Place, 18(5), 551–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gong, C., Kendig, H., Harding, A., Miranti, R., & McNamara, J. (2014). Economic disadvantage among older Australians: Producing national and small area profiles. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, The, 20(3), 512–539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graybill, E. M., McMeekin, P., & Wildman, J. (2014). Can aging in place be cost effective? A systematic review. PLoS One, 9(7), e102705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding, A., McNamara, J., Daly, A., & Tanton, R. (2009). Child social exclusion: an updated index from the 2006 census. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 12(1), 41–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendig, H. (2000). Ageing and the built environment in P. Troy, (ed.) Equity, environment, efficiency: Ethics and eonomics in Urban Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

  • Legge, V., & O'Loughlin, K. (2000). The balance of benefit: A review of intergenerational transfers in Australia. The Gerontologist, 40(5), 605–611.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lui, C. W., Warburton, J., Winterton, R., & Bartlett, H. (2011). Critical reflections on a social inclusion approach for an ageing Australia. Australian Social Work, 64(3), 266–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mermin, G. B., Johnson, R. W., & Murphy, D. P. (2007). Why do boomers plan to work longer? The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 62(5), S286–S294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrow-Howell, N., Hinterlong, J., Rozario, P. A., & Tang, F. (2003). Effects of volunteering on the well-being of older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58(3), S137–S145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miranti, R., & Yu, P. (2015). Why social exclusion persists among older people in Australia. Social Inclusion, Special Issue on Indicators and Measurement of Social Inclusion, 3(4), 112–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miranti, R., Payne, A. & McNamara, J, (2010). Towards small area indicators of well-being for older Australians: concepts and issues. Canberra: NATSEM Discussion Paper DP67.

  • Miranti, R., McNamara, J., Tanton, R., & Harding, A. (2011). Poverty at the local level: National and small area poverty estimates by family type for Australia in 2006. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 4(3), 145–171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miranti, R., Daly, A., & Tanton, R. (2015). An area-based measure of risk of social exclusion for Australian school age children. Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, 21(1), 26–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miranti, R., Brown, L., Li, J., Tanton, R., Vidyattama, Y., Tuli, S., & Rowe, P. (2021). Examining trends in the child social exclusion index in Australia from 2011 to 2016: Have geographical patterns of disadvantage persisted over time?. Child Indicators Research, 1–28

  • Namazi-Rad, M., Tanton, R., Steel, D., Mokhtarian, P., & Das, S. (2017). An unconstrained statistical matching algorithm for combining individual and household level geo-specific census and survey data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 63, 3–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Academy on an Ageing Society. (2000). How healthy are young retirees and older workers? Washington, DC: National Academy on an Ageing Society.

  • National Seniors Australia. (2015). Appreciating value: Measuring the economic and social contributions of mature age Australians. National Seniors Australia Productive Ageing Centre, 2015.

  • Noble, M, Wright, G, Dibben, C, Smith, G, McLennan, D, Anttila, C., & Lloyd, M. (2004). The English indices of deprivation 2004. Office of London: the Deputy Prime Minister:

  • OECD. (2015). Elderly population. https://doi.org/10.1787/8d805ea1-en.

  • Olsberg, D. & Winters, M. (2005). Ageing in place: Intergenerational and intrafamilial housing transfers and shifts in later life, AHURI Final Report, No. 88. Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

  • Peel, N. M., Bartlett, H. P., & McClure, R. (2004). Healthy ageing: how is it defined and measured? Australasian Journal on Ageing, 23(3), 115–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Randolph, B., & Freestone, R. (2012). Housing differentiation and renewal in middle-ring suburbs: The experience of Sydney. Australia. Urban studies, 49(12), 2557–2575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowles, G. D. (1993). Evolving images of place in aging and 'Aging in place'. Generations, 17, 65–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, P., Hill, T. and Bradbury, B. (2008). Poverty in Australia: Sensitivity analysis and recent trends, Social Policy Research Centre Report 4/08. Sydney: Social Policy Research Centre.

  • Tanton, R., & Phillips, B. (2013). A measure of the depth of housing stress and its application in Australia. Economic Papers, 32(1), 99–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanton, R., Vidyattama, Y., McNamara, J., Vu, Q. N., & Harding, A. (2009). Old, single and poor: Using microsimulation and microdata to analyse poverty and the impact of policy change among older Australians. Economic Papers, 28(2), 102–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanton, R., Harding, A., Daly, A., McNamara, J., & Yap, M. (2010). Australian children at risk of social exclusion: a spatial index for gauging relative disadvantage. Population, Space and Place, 16(2), 135–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanton, R., Vidyattama, Y., Nepal, B., & McNamara, J. (2011). Small area estimation using a reweighting algorithm. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 174(4), 931–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanton, R., Vidyattama, Y., & Miranti, R. (2016). Small area indicators of wellbeing for older Australians (IOWA). NATSEM, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA). Report commissioned by The Benevolent Society: University of Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • UK Government (2006). Independence and well-being of older people: Baseline report - A social portrait of ageing in the UK. HM Government, UK: UK Social Exclusion Unit Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

  • United States Federal Interagency Forum on Aging and Related Statistics of USA. (2008). Older Americans 2008: Key indicators of well-being. Washington, DC: Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Benevolent Society for funding provided for this project and comments and feedback on the earlier version of this paper.

Funding

(information that explains whether and by whom the research was supported)

The Benevolent Society provided funding for the earlier version of this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Riyana Miranti, Robert Tanton, Yogi Vidyattama & Sajeda Tuli

Authors
  1. Riyana Miranti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert Tanton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yogi Vidyattama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sajeda Tuli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

(optional: please review the submission guidelines from the journal whether statements are mandatory)

Riyana Miranti undertook data analysis, construction of the index, analysis of the results and was a co-contributor in writing the manuscript. Robert Tanton analysed the results and was a co-contributor in writing the manuscript. Yogi Vidyattama undertook spatial microsimulation technique to estimate indicators at small area level required for the index creation that cannot be sourced elsewhere, created the maps of the index findings and a co-contributor in writing the manuscript. Sajeda Tuli collected and cleaned the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Riyana Miranti.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interest/Competing interests

(include appropriate disclosures)

"The authors declare that they have no competing interests"

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Miranti, R., Tanton, R., Vidyattama, Y. et al. Using an index of wellbeing for older people in small areas of Australia to assist identifying services required. Appl. Spatial Analysis 15, 971–991 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-021-09432-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-021-09432-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation