Health and function in the third age: Papers prepared for the Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age

The stimulus to the inquiry was the recognition that although this section of the population is now of considerable size it has been largely ignored in social policy and organisation. This is chiefly because the demographic and economic processes that have produced the phenomenon of the third age are historically recent.

Provided there is no unforeseen cataclysm, however, the third age is destined to be a permanent feature of economically developed societies and it is timely to consider accommodations to the needs and aspirations of people in a vulnerable but potentially rewarding phase of life.

The papers presented here were prepared for the Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age.