Grant: Team Grant: GenderNet Plus

The inevitability of physical and functional decline is not uniform with ageing. Unlike the biological impact of time, social and individual circumstances (eg wealth, access to resources, social capital) are malleable via public policies. Limited research suggests their effect on health is entwined with sex/gender. Understanding social determinants and what health outcomes older adults view as central to ageing successfully despite chronic disease is essential to fostering health equality. For example, explaining the gender paradox in health (despite being poorer than men women live longer albeit reporting more suffering) could inform policies to equalize underlying social differentials. FUTUREGEN will examine current and future social circumstances that contribute to sex/gender inequalities in the health of older adults and their uneven access to care-giving/receiving. We will 1) develop research methods and measures that incorporate the complexity of individual roles and affiliations (eg within the category 'women' lies the variability of access to resources, autonomy at home and work, social support, early life adversity, etc.) 2) apply these novel methods to analysing comparable European and Canadian datasets that better embed cultural norms than does single country data & 3) obtain older people's definitions of healthy and successful ageing through qualitative research. All steps will be integrated in a back and forth manner and reviewed and challenged by an international expert Sounding Board. Our international research team brings awareness of the impact of different cultural milieux on health (ie a varied set of cultural eyes to interpret findings) as well as the intellectual and methodological richness of multiple disciplines (social sciences, economics, medicine). In addition to scholarly papers and policy advice we will deliver a manual & two workshops for young academics on methods for studying the depth and breadth of sex/gender and health equality.