Population studies with longitudinal follow-up and mortality information can be used to estimate transitions between healthy and unhealthy states before death. When health is defined with respect to cognitive ability during old age, the trajectory of performance is either static or downwards....

The effect of socio-economic disadvantage on mortality is well documented and differences exist even at older ages. However, whether this translates into differences in the quality of life lived at older ages is less well studied, and in particular in the proportion of remaining life spent...

Although the association between socioeconomic status and mortality is well documented, there is less work focusing on the association with morbidity in older people. This is partly due to the difficulties of measuring socioeconomic status at older ages. The work that does exist tends to use...