Health-related quality of life for people aged 65 and over

Published

Last updated 8 August 2023 - see all updates

1. Main facts and figures

  • in the 5 years to March 2017, the average health-related quality of life score for people in England aged 65 and older went up from 0.726 to 0.735 (from 0.000 to 1.000)
  • in the year ending March 2017, the average health-related quality of life score was highest in the Asian Other ethnic group (0.805), and lowest in the White Gypsy and Irish Traveller ethnic group (0.509)
  • the Asian Other ethnic group had the highest average health-related quality of life score every year covered by this data
  • the White Gypsy and Irish Traveller group had the lowest score in every year except one

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures the average health-related quality of life score for people in England aged 65 and older.

Scores are rounded to 3 decimal places.

How health-related quality of life scores are calculated

Scores were worked out based on how people answered questions about their mobility, pain and discomfort, mental health and overall health. They range from 0.000 (the lowest score) to 1.000.

The ethnic groups used in the data

Data is shown for the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.

Methodology

The estimates on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:

In the data file

See Download the data for data by:

  • confidence intervals for each ethnic group – find out more about how we use confidence intervals to judge how reliable estimates are
  • the unweighted number of people who responded to the survey
Location:
England
Time period:
2012 to 2013 to 2016 to 2017
Source:
Public Health Outcomes Framework - Older people
Average health-related quality of life score for people aged 65 and older, by ethnicity over time
Ethnicity 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17
All 0.726 0.727 0.734 0.733 0.735
Asian
Bangladeshi 0.589 0.574 0.593 0.607 0.556
Chinese 0.705 0.675 0.698 0.705 0.681
Indian 0.662 0.673 0.681 0.679 0.688
Pakistani 0.577 0.602 0.578 0.590 0.580
Asian other 0.784 0.785 0.792 0.802 0.805
Black
Black African 0.725 0.736 0.721 0.721 0.753
Black Caribbean 0.705 0.716 0.715 0.721 0.727
Black other 0.681 0.677 0.676 0.686 0.679
Mixed
Mixed White/Asian 0.747 0.712 0.723 0.727 0.746
Mixed White/Black African 0.667 0.763 0.691 0.744 0.720
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 0.704 0.733 0.713 0.690 0.717
Mixed other 0.693 0.712 0.715 0.711 0.728
White
White British 0.729 0.730 0.738 0.736 0.739
White Irish 0.720 0.725 0.729 0.733 0.740
White Gypsy/Traveller 0.573 0.543 0.540 0.626 0.509
White other 0.712 0.720 0.719 0.723 0.726
Other
Arab 0.687 0.606 0.610 0.649 0.677
Any other 0.671 0.669 0.667 0.673 0.683

Download table data for ‘Average health-related quality of life score for people aged 65 and older’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Average health-related quality of life score for people aged 65 and older’ (CSV)

4. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Public Health England

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

1 in 5 people are over 65 and this is set to rise to 1 in 3 by 2033.

Older people are the biggest users of health and social care, and often have the most complex needs, longer-term conditions, and functional, sensory or cognitive impairments.

Dementia also accounts for more expenditure than heart disease and cancer combined.

This data will help provide a greater focus on preventing ill health, preserving independence and promoting well-being in older people. This is key to keeping systems functioning and to ensure that the needs of this large group of users are addressed.

Secondary source

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

NHS England

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

Feedback from patients on their experience, treatment and care is an important source of information for helping local clinicians and managers to improve the quality of service design and healthcare.

The GP patient survey (GPPS) responses used for this measure offer healthcare providers insights that can help improve GP surgeries and the services the provide.

5. Download the data

Health related quality of life for older people - Spreadsheet (csv) 21 KB

This file contains: Measure, Time, Ethnicity, Age Bracket, Value, Unweighted respondents, Confidence intervals

Publication release date: 17 June 2019

Updated: 8 August 2023

full page history
  1. page has been restructured
  2. Moved all contextual information to ‘Things you need to know’ and new subsections. Increased visibility by adding it to the table of contents. Removed any duplication and added links to content about understanding our data. Charts, tables and the data file have not been updated.
  3. Updated to make the data source title more specific
  4. Updated to make the data source title more specific
  5. First published

From: Public Health England

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