Jane Falkingham
Biographic Data
| ID | 293333 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jane Falkingham |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jane |
| FAMILY NAME | Falkingham |
| SIGNATURE | FALKINGHAM J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7135-5875 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 82 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 488 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 81 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Unpaid caregiving and job satisfaction
Taking up unpaid caregiving, that is, providing care for sick or disabled people in one’s social network, can affect paid employment. Previous research has mostly found negative effects, focusing more on ‘objective’ outcomes, such as labour supply or wages. We argue that to have a fuller picture of the employment consequences of unpaid caregiving, including potential positive effects, as suggested by enrichment theory, it is important to examine …
Dynamics of Unmet Social Care Needs and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults
This study examines the dynamics of unmet social care needs and the impact on depressive symptoms in a longitudinal study of older people in England. Using data from Waves 8 and 9 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we explore the relationship between trajectories of unmet needs amongst disabled or frail older adults aged 65 and over and depressive symptoms, taking into account changes in care needs across time and loneliness. Nested reg…
Delivering '50 PLUS Choices' in the UK
Delivering '50 PLUS Choices' in the UK
The past decade has been marked by cuts in public funding of adult social care alongside an increased policy focus within the UK on extending working lives through '50 PLUS Choices'. This study uses the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009/10-2018/19) to examine the relationship between informal care provision and labour market participation. The analysis focusses on mid-life, a period of life course characterised by both the uptake of informal …
Caring trajectories and health in mid-life
Previous research has found varied effects of informal care provision on the carer's health status. Few studies have, however, examined this relationship dynamically. This paper is the first to analyse trajectories of care among men and women in mid-life and their impact on health outcomes using a nationally representative prospective cohort study. Data from three waves of the United Kingdom (UK) National Child Development Study (N = 7,465), when…
Dynamics of unmet need for social care in England
Meeting individuals' social care needs is a core element of UK social policy. However, the conceptualisation and operationalisation of ‘unmet need’ remain a challenge. This paper advances our understanding by incorporating a temporal dimension into the conceptual framework on unmet need to investigate the dynamics of met and unmet need for social care over time. Using data from Waves 8 and 9 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this paper…
Sleep Problems and New Occurrence of Chronic Conditions during the Covid-19 Pandemic in the UK
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted upon sleep health. Relatively little is known about how this may influence the population's health subsequently. This prospective longitudinal study aims to examine the consequences of sleep problems for physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, using data from the Understanding Society: COVID-19 Study, a large-scale population-based survey with 12,804 adults aged 16 and above…
Did the Socio-Economic Gradient in Depression in Later-Life Deteriorate or Weaken during the Covid-19 Pandemic? New Evidence from England Using Path Analysis
It is well established that there is a socioeconomic gradient in adult mental health. However, little is known about whether and how this gradient has been exacerbated or mitigated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to identify the modifiable pathways involved in the association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis included 5107 adults aged 50+ living in England and participating…
Changing living arrangements and stress during Covid-19 lockdown
The findings confirm that during the first lockdown, changing living arrangements were negatively associated with individuals' mental wellbeing. As prolonged periods of stress can lead to serious health problems and policymakers need to be mindful that services may need to take these new, albeit for many temporary, forms of living arrangements into account
Informal Care Provision and the Reduction of Economic Activity Among Mid-Life Carers in Great Britain – A Mixed-Methods Approach
Informal care provision is an integral part of the long-term care system. However, it has been shown to have negative effects on the carers’ economic activity, and understanding the mechanisms behind this is crucial for social policy design. This study provides new insight into mid-life carers’ decisions to reduce their economic activity through a convergent mixed-methods design. Quantitative analysis of a sample of 2,233 carers aged fifty from t…
Handbook on Demographic Change and the Lifecourse
This innovative Handbook offers a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of demographic change across the lifecourse. Chapters highlight major theoretical and methodological advances and present research that sheds light on family dynamics, health and mobility over the lifecourse, illustrating the implications of lifecourse research for policy and reform.
Caught in the middle in mid-life
With a large baby-boomer generation entering mid-later life in the United Kingdom, and families spanning across multiple generations, understanding how individuals support multiple generations is of increasing research and policy significance. Data from the British 1958 National Child Development Study, collected when respondents were aged 55, are used to examine how mid-life women and men allocate their time to support elderly parents/parents-in…
Accumulated lifecourse adversities and depressive symptoms in later life among older men and women in England
This paper investigates the association between accumulated major lifecourse adversities and later-life depressive symptoms among older people in England, both at a single point in time (prevalence) and the onset over time during later life (incidence), using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Using retrospective data on the experience of major life adversities from childhood onwards, five latent classes were identified: no/few l…
Informal care provision across multiple generations in China
With increasing life expectancy, changes in family structure and, most recently, the relaxation of the hitherto strict family planning policies, understanding how mid-life individuals support multiple generations, particularly their older parents and younger grandchildren, is of increasing research and policy significance in China. This paper analyses data from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to examine the charac…
Attitudes and preferences towards future old-age support amongst tomorrow's elders in China
The life course experiences of those born in China from the late 1950s to early 1970s have been very different to those of their predecessors; they may not be able to, or wish to, rely on their family for support in later life in the future
Unravelling the wider benefits of social pensions
A growing number of low and middle income countries have introduced social pension programs for older people. Research has highlighted that the impact of such programs can extend beyond the primary recipient when funds are shared. It less clear the extent to which such redistribution persists in the lowest resource settings. Using data from a survey conducted in 2016, this paper examines how recipients of the Kenyan Older Persons Cash Transfer Pr…
The dynamics of social care and employment in mid-life
This study investigates the relationship between the provision of informal care to older parents/parents-in-law and the employment status of adult children in mid-life. The study analyses unique panel data for a cohort of individuals born in 1958 in Britain, focusing on respondents at risk of providing care ( i.e. with at least one surviving parent/parent-in-law) and in employment at 50. Logistic regression is used to investigate the impact of ca…
Unpacking the Differential Impact of Family Planning Policies in China
Although China’s family planning programme is often referred to in the singular, most notably the One-Child policy, in reality there have been a number of different policies in place simultaneously, targeted at different sub-populations characterized by region and socioeconomic conditions. This study attempted to systematically assess the differential impact of China’s family planning programmes over the past 40 years. The contribution of Parity …
Determinants of National Health Insurance enrolment in Ghana across the life course
The paper indicates that although the gap in coverage among rich and poor and urban and rural residents appears to have decreased, these factors still determine NHIS coverage of younger and older adults. The same holds for education. Increasing efforts are needed to ensure equal access to healthcare
Universal health coverage in the context of population ageing
Adequate and appropriate infrastructure as well as health insurance is vital to ensure movement to UHC in low and middle income countries. Overall, the results confirm that there remain significant inequalities in enrolment by expenditure quintile that future policy reform will need to address
Sick and stuck at home – how poor health increases electricity consumption and reduces opportunities for environmentally-friendly travel in the United Kingdom
Research on the determinants of direct and indirect energy use has identified a range of relevant socio-economic factors. However, we still know little about possible influences of people's health on their energy use. Do people in poor health use less energy because they are on lower incomes, or do they have additional domestic energy needs as they spend more time at home? Does poor health reduce mobility for all or just some (environmentally-fri…
Intergenerational flows of support between parents and adult children in Britain
Understanding patterns of intergenerational support is critical within the context of demographic change, such as changing family structures and population ageing. Existing research has focused on intergenerational support at a given time in the individuals' lifecourse, e.g. from adult children towards older parents and vice versa ; however, few studies have focused on the dynamic nature of such support. Analysing data from the 1958 National Chil…
Children’s migration and chronic illness among older parents ‘left behind’ in China
The relationship between adult children’s migration and the health of their older parents ‘left behind’ is an emerging research area and existing studies reflect mixed findings. This study aims to investigate the association between having migrant (adult) children and older parents’ chronic illness in China, using chronic stomach or other digestive diseases as a proxy. Secondary analysis of the national baseline survey of the 2011 China Health an…
Children's migration and lifestyle-related chronic disease among older parents ‘left behind’ in india
Lifestyle-related chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are now the leading causes of death and disability in India. Interestingly, those Indian states with the highest prevalence of lifestyle-related chronic disease among older adults are also found to have the highest rates of international or internal out-migration. This paper investigates the association between having migrant (adult) children and older parents' lifest…
Is Rapid Urbanisation Exacerbating Wealth-Related Urban Inequalities in Child Nutritional Status? Evidence from Least Developed Countries
Gender, Turning Points, and Boomerangs
The idea of a generation of young adults “boomeranging” back to the parental home has gained widespread currency in the British popular press. However, there is little empirical research identifying either increasing rates of returning home or the factors associated with this trend. This article addresses this gap in the literature using data from a long-running household panel survey to examine the occurrence and determinants of returning to the…
Poverty, out-of-pocket payments and access to health care
The changing determinants of UK young adults' living arrangements
The postponement of partnership formation and parenthood in the context of an early average age at leaving home has resulted in increased heterogeneity in the living arrangements of young adults in the UK. More young adults now remain in the parental h
Onwards or Homewards? Complex Graduate Migration Pathways, Well‐being, and the ‘Parental Safety Net’
Pre‐existing literatures on post‐student migration have mainly focused on inter‐regional flows of young educated migrants, the attendant redistribution of human capital around the UK, and the impact on local and regional economies. This paper argues that the parochial focus on labour‐motivated graduate migration (usually to first employment), and the absence of data enabling individual migration histories to be traced longitudinally across the po…
The determinants of receiving social care in later life in England
Demographic change and policy changes in social care provision can affect the type of social care support received by older people, whether through informal, formal state or formal paid-for sources. This paper analyses the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing data (wave 4) in order to examine the relationship between demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and the receipt of support from different sources by older people who report diffic…
The relationship between women’s work histories and incomes in later life in the UK, US and West Germany
Using data from several large-scale longitudinal surveys, this article investigates the relationship between the work histories and personal incomes (from both public and private sources) of older women in the UK, US and West Germany. By comparing three countries with different welfare regimes and pension systems, we seek to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the life course, pension system and women’s incomes in later life. T…
Through Civil War, Food Crisis and Drought
Overview of migration, poverty and health dynamics in Nairobi City's slum settlements
The Urbanization, Poverty, and Health Dynamics research program was designed to generate and provide the evidence base that would help governments, development partners, and other stakeholders understand how the urban slum context affects health outcomes in order to stimulate policy and action for uplifting the wellbeing of slum residents. The program was nested into the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System, a uniquely rich lo…
Inequality and Changes in Women's Use of Maternal Health‐care Services in Tajikistan
Using recently available survey data for Tajikistan, this study explores changes in the pattern of maternal health care during the last decade and the extent to which inequalities in access to that care have emerged. In particular, the links between poverty and women's educational status and the use of maternal health‐care services are investigated. The survey findings demonstrate a significant decline in the use of maternal health‐care services …
Fertility transition in Communist Albania, 1950-90
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, Albania had the highest fertility in Europe with an average of more than six live births per woman. However, when Albania emerged from behind the 'olive curtain' in 1990, fertility had fallen to three children per woman, despite a pro-natalist environment and in the virtual absence of contraception and abortion. Nevertheless, after five decades, Albania's position at the top of the European fertility l…
The End of the Rollercoaster? Growth, Inequality and Poverty in Central Asia and the Caucasus
This paper examines the impact of a decade of transition on living standards and welfare in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Following independence in 1991 all countries suffered a sharp decline in GDP per capita, with levels in some countries falling to below a quarter of the pre‐transition level. Since then, all countries have experienced positive economic growth. The key questions are whether this growth has been accompanied by declines in inequ…
Dynamics of unmet need for social care in England
Meeting individuals' social care needs is a core element of UK social policy. However, the conceptualisation and operationalisation of ‘unmet need’ remain a challenge. This paper advances our understanding by incorporating a temporal dimension into the conceptual framework on unmet need to investigate the dynamics of met and unmet need for social care over time. Using data from Waves 8 and 9 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this paper…
Ethnic elders and pension protection in the United Kingdom
Pension receipt in later life is determined by the way in which individuals' pension contributions and circumstances over the lifecourse interact with eligibility rules. Within the British context, such pensions relate to sources such as the State Pension, an occupational or private pension, and Pension Credit. Existing research shows that membership of certain ethnic groups is associated with a lower likelihood of receiving occupational or priva…
Ethnic inequalities in limiting health and self-reported health in later life revisited
BACKGROUND: It is well established that there are ethnic inequalities in health in the UK; however, such inequalities in later life remain a relatively under-researched area. This paper explores ethnic inequalities in health among older people in the UK, controlling for social and economic disadvantages. METHODS: This paper analyses the first wave (2009-2011) of Understanding Society to examine differentials in the health of older persons aged 60…
Informal care provision across multiple generations in China
With increasing life expectancy, changes in family structure and, most recently, the relaxation of the hitherto strict family planning policies, understanding how mid-life individuals support multiple generations, particularly their older parents and younger grandchildren, is of increasing research and policy significance in China. This paper analyses data from the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to examine the charac…
Women's economic activity trajectories over the life course
BACKGROUND: Previous research has highlighted the importance of accumulated life-course labour market status and the balancing of multiple roles for understanding inequalities in health in later life. This may be particularly important for women, who are increasingly required to balance work and family life in liberal welfare contexts, such as in Britain. METHODS: This study analyses retrospective life history data for 2160 women aged 64+ years (…
Family Ties
This article examines the relationship between the family and work histories of older women and their personal incomes in later life, using retrospective data from the first 15 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. The association between women's family histories and their incomes later in life are relatively weak, explaining only a small proportion of the overall variation in older women's incomes. Divorce, early widowhood and re-marriage…
Staying in school
At independence in 1991, Tajikistan enjoyed almost universal literacy, reflecting the legacy of social development achieved during the Soviet period. However, since then the country has undergone immense economic, political and social upheaval, including civil war. As a consequence, the gains of the past are quickly being eroded. Recent evidence suggests that school attendance rates are declining, the gender gap is widening, and there is increasi…
Dependency and Ageing in Britain
There has been growing concern over the consequences for public expenditure of an increasing number of elderly people dependent on a relatively diminishing working population. This concern stems largely from demographically determined dependency ratios and it is not necessarily the case that a change in the age profile of the population will lead to a greater burden of dependency. The 'engine of dependency' is shown to have at least two other cyl…
The dynamics of social care and employment in mid-life
This study investigates the relationship between the provision of informal care to older parents/parents-in-law and the employment status of adult children in mid-life. The study analyses unique panel data for a cohort of individuals born in 1958 in Britain, focusing on respondents at risk of providing care ( i.e. with at least one surviving parent/parent-in-law) and in employment at 50. Logistic regression is used to investigate the impact of ca…
Intergenerational flows of support between parents and adult children in Britain
Understanding patterns of intergenerational support is critical within the context of demographic change, such as changing family structures and population ageing. Existing research has focused on intergenerational support at a given time in the individuals' lifecourse, e.g. from adult children towards older parents and vice versa ; however, few studies have focused on the dynamic nature of such support. Analysing data from the 1958 National Chil…
Household Members' Migration and the Education of Children ‘Left Behind’
There is growing recognition that when a household member migrates, there is a complex range of social as well as economic consequences for the everyday lives of those who remain in the origin household. This paper examines the children left behind phenomenon in Tajikistan, a country with very high rates of international labour migration. With the use of data from the Tajikistan 2007 Living Standards Survey, logistic regression modelling is appli…
Outward Migration from Large Cities
Circular and return migrations between rural and urban areas in sub‐Saharan Africa have persisted over time, driven by a combination of socio‐cultural, economic, and structural forces. Much of the literature on migration in Africa focuses on labour migration. However, old age also marks a stage in the life course often associated with migration. This paper examined the determinants of out‐migration among older people living in the slums of Nairob…
Trends in out-of-pocket payments for health care in Kyrgyzstan, 2001-2007
Within the countries of the former Soviet Union, the Kyrgyz Republic has been a pioneer in reforming the system of health care finance. Since the introduction of its compulsory health insurance fund in 1997, the country has gradually moved from subsidizing the supply of services to subsidizing the purchase of services through the 'single payer' of the health insurance fund. In 2002 the government introduced a new co-payment for inpatients along w…
Caught in the middle in mid-life
With a large baby-boomer generation entering mid-later life in the United Kingdom, and families spanning across multiple generations, understanding how individuals support multiple generations is of increasing research and policy significance. Data from the British 1958 National Child Development Study, collected when respondents were aged 55, are used to examine how mid-life women and men allocate their time to support elderly parents/parents-in…
Intergenerational Transfers and Public Expenditure on the Elderly in Modern Britain
In the United States, much attention has recently been directed to the issue of whether the welfare system has become over-generous to the retired population, at the expense of families with children. The proportion of the US elderly population living in poverty has fallen significantly in the last fifteen years while the number of poor children has increased rapidly, and it has been suggested that this lack of investment in the next generation o…
Dependency and Ageing in Britain
There has been growing concern over the consequences for public expenditure of an increasing number of elderly people dependent on a relatively diminishing working population. This concern stems largely from demographically determined dependency ratios and it is not necessarily the case that a change in the age profile of the population will lead to a greater burden of dependency. The 'engine of dependency' is shown to have at least two other cyl…
Cerebrospinal fluid markers in neurological disorders
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers are a useful tool for determining disease progression or activity in some neurological disorders which need parameters both for evaluating treatments and investigating pathobiological evolution in research-oriented follow-up. A number of CSF proteins are reviewed with data on biological properties, analytical methods, clinical usefulness of: myelin basic protein, S-100 protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein, ne…
How much do we care
The Myth of the Woopie
Comments made by a UK Government minister in 1989 concerning poverty, or rather the lack of it, amongst elderly people once again reflected the idea that the majority are well-off and less in need of State support than was the case in the past. The idea of a new group of Woopies (well off older persons) has been used as justification for debate about the introduction of means-testing for certain benefits directed at the elderly population. This p…
Unemployment
(1991). Unemployment: Family Circumstances and Childhood Correlates Among Young People in Britain. Population Studies: Vol. 45, No. sup1, pp. 115-132
Equity in Health and Social Care
This paper studies equity in the distribution of primary health care and domiciliary care for elderly people. The main data source is the 1980 GHS which has been linked to local authority data. An equitably distributed service is defined as one in which only variables which measure respondent's need for the service provide a significant explanation of whether the respondent receives the service. In the case of primary health care we find that for…
Ageing and Economic Welfare
Ageing and Economic Welfare
Male contraceptive knowledge and practice
The post-Cairo period has seen a dramatic increase in interest in ‘men’ but there is little known about male knowledge, attitudes and practices with regard to contraceptive use. This paper examines current knowledge about male behaviour, and extends that knowledge using data from Demographic and Health Survey Male Surveys. Findings cast doubt on the conventional wisdom that male knowledge is low. Married men’s use of any method is relatively high…
Paradoxes of Health Transition in Europe's Poorest Country
Scholars interested in the ways in which good health, as measured by levels of mortality, can be achieved at low cost have paid considerable attention to countries and regions in Asia and Latin America where this has been accomplished. Until recently the analogous experience of a poor developing country in Europe, Albania, was impossible to study, because of the totalitarian and isolationist policies of the communist regime that ruled the country…
British Pension Policy in the Twenty‐first Century
Fertility transition in Communist Albania, 1950-90
In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, Albania had the highest fertility in Europe with an average of more than six live births per woman. However, when Albania emerged from behind the 'olive curtain' in 1990, fertility had fallen to three children per woman, despite a pro-natalist environment and in the virtual absence of contraception and abortion. Nevertheless, after five decades, Albania's position at the top of the European fertility l…
Winners and Losers
Objectives. This study sought to describe the evolution of the Russian compulsory health insurance system and to identify factors associated with noncoverage. Methods. Data from successive waves of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (1992–2000) were analyzed. Results. Insurance coverage grew rapidly throughout the 1990s, although 11.8% of the country’s citizens were still uninsured by 2000. Coverage initiation rates were greater at first …
Inequality and Changes in Women's Use of Maternal Health‐care Services in Tajikistan
Using recently available survey data for Tajikistan, this study explores changes in the pattern of maternal health care during the last decade and the extent to which inequalities in access to that care have emerged. In particular, the links between poverty and women's educational status and the use of maternal health‐care services are investigated. The survey findings demonstrate a significant decline in the use of maternal health‐care services …
Poverty, out-of-pocket payments and access to health care
The End of the Rollercoaster? Growth, Inequality and Poverty in Central Asia and the Caucasus
This paper examines the impact of a decade of transition on living standards and welfare in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Following independence in 1991 all countries suffered a sharp decline in GDP per capita, with levels in some countries falling to below a quarter of the pre‐transition level. Since then, all countries have experienced positive economic growth. The key questions are whether this growth has been accompanied by declines in inequ…
Formalizing informal payments
This paper evaluates the success of the recent ‘Single Payer Reform’ in the health sector of the Kyrgyz Republic in achieving the aim of replacing unofficial out-of-pocket payments with a transpare
Determinants of Current Contraceptive Use and Method Choice in Mongolia
This study examines the determinants of current contraceptive use and method choice in Mongolia using data from the 1998 Mongolian Reproductive Health Survey and 2000 Mongolian Population and Housing Census. Since 1976, access to modern contraceptives has been liberalized and all restrictions on the use, distribution and import of contraceptives were removed in 1989. There were some increases in the use of modern contraceptives among married wome…
HIV/Aids and the health of older people in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya
Poor health outcomes among older people affected by HIV/AIDS highlight the need for policies that target them in the fight against HIV/AIDS if they are to play their envisaged care giving and other traditional roles
Staying in school
At independence in 1991, Tajikistan enjoyed almost universal literacy, reflecting the legacy of social development achieved during the Soviet period. However, since then the country has undergone immense economic, political and social upheaval, including civil war. As a consequence, the gains of the past are quickly being eroded. Recent evidence suggests that school attendance rates are declining, the gender gap is widening, and there is increasi…
Gender and Poverty
Since December 1999 all countries wishing to access concessional lending from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank are required to prepare a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The vast majority of PRSP incorporate an analysis of the current level and profile of poverty that relies on the unitary model of the household. This article argues that by doing so, policy analysts may receive a distorted view of the relationship betw…
Trends in out-of-pocket payments for health care in Kyrgyzstan, 2001-2007
Within the countries of the former Soviet Union, the Kyrgyz Republic has been a pioneer in reforming the system of health care finance. Since the introduction of its compulsory health insurance fund in 1997, the country has gradually moved from subsidizing the supply of services to subsidizing the purchase of services through the 'single payer' of the health insurance fund. In 2002 the government introduced a new co-payment for inpatients along w…
Through Civil War, Food Crisis and Drought
Gender differentials on the health consequences of care-giving to people with Aids-related illness among older informal carers in two slums in Nairobi, Kenya
Informal caregivers, most often older people, provide valuable care and support for people ill due to AIDS, especially in poor-resource settings with inadequate health care systems and limited access to antiretroviral therapy. The negative health consequences associated with care-giving may vary depending on various factors that act to mediate the extent of the effects on the caregiver. This paper investigates the association between care-giving …
Medicine (50 works) · Economics (48 works) · Sociology (46 works) · Demography (40 works) · Political science (38 works) · Population (37 works) · Psychology (36 works) · Economic growth (35 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (30 works) · Demographic economics (27 works)