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Background: the number of childless older people is increasing in China but relatively little is known about the role of childlessness in health outcomes. This study investigates the relationship between childlessness and three health outcomes: difficulty with instrumental activities of daily living scale (IADLs), self-rated health and depression. Methods: this study includes 13,171 individuals aged 50 and above from national survey data of the second wave of the China Family Panel Study (2012). Binary/multinomial logistic and ordinary least squares regression models are presented. Results: childless individuals whose children have all died exhibit worse health outcomes than individuals with children, but this effect is mediated by demographic characteristics, socio-economic status and social security. While, individuals who are childless due to other reasons (involuntary or voluntary) are less likely to report difficulty with instrumental activities of daily living scale (IADLs) and to report depression than older people with all children alive after controlling for demographic and socio-economic and social security factors. Conclusions: the death of a child has an adverse effect on people's health for both childless people whose children have all died and those who have lost a child but have other children alive. These two groups are in the most vulnerable position which could also suggest that their children have died because they grew up in a vulnerable family. The government needs to improve the social security for these two groups and provide social services (particularly mental health services) to older people who lost a child; these could contribute to mediating some of the adverse effects of the death of a child.

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 the National Child Development Study (NCDS) Wave 8 with follow up at age fifty-five, and qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews of forty-eight carers between 2008-2010, were used. The combined results indicate that being female, single never married, having financial issues, being an employee, and frequently meeting a parent are associated with economic activity reduction; the carers' own perspectives further elucidate key factors, such as their value and identity, family structure, life course events, and care intensity, which affect their decisions.

It is well established that there are differentials in health among individuals of different Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) heritage. BME communities are unevenly concentrated across England and Wales. This paper examines the effect of residential density of one's own ethnic group on physical health outcomes in England and Wales. In addition, it explores whether the effects of ethnic density on physical health outcomes are concealed by area deprivation, and whether individual economic deprivation and area deprivation play a role in this relationship. Data on BME and White British individuals from the first wave of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Understanding Society) are linked with ethnic density characteristics from the 2011 UK Census and with the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) from the 2010 English and Welsh Governments. Multilevel logistic regression is then employed in the analysis. The results show that individuals from BME groups who live in areas with a high density of their own ethnic group are more likely to report poor health, but these effects are mediated by both individual economic deprivation and area deprivation. The results highlight that facilitating the improvement of economic and social conditions for individuals in deprived areas could help to reduce the negative differentials in health outcomes experienced by individuals from BME communities.

AbstractReflecting a relatively low‐value Basic State Pension, occupational pensions have historically been a key aspect of pension protection within Britain. Existing research shows that minority ethnic groups are less likely to benefit from such pensions and are more likely to face poverty in later life, as a result of the interaction of their labour market participation and pension membership patterns. However, the lack of adequate data on ethnic minorities has so far prevented the direct comparison of different ethnic groups, as well as their comparison to the White British group. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, this article explores patterns of employment and the odds ratios of membership in an employer's pension scheme among working‐age individuals from minority ethnic groups and the White British population, taking into account factors not used by previous research, such as one's migration history and sector of employment (public/private). The analysis provides new empirical evidence confirming that ethnicity remains a strong determinant of one's pension protection prospects through being in paid work, being an employee and working for an employer who offers a pension scheme. However, once an individual is working for an employer offering a pension scheme, the effect of ethnicity on that person's odds of being a member of that scheme reduces, except among Pakistani and Bangladeshi individuals for whom the differentials remain. The article also provides evidence on the pension protection of Polish individuals, a relatively 'new' minority group in the UK.