title: 'Being old and ill' across different countries: social status, age identification and older people's subjective health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  It has been suggested that the extent to which older adults identify with 'old-age' is associated with greater subjective ill-health. Based on social identity theory, we hypothesise that the societal social status of older people should moderate this relationship, such that the effect of age-identification on subjective health should be stronger in countries in which older people have lower social status.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjective health, age identification and the perceived status of people over 70 were assessed in a subsample of older respondents (N = 6185) of the 2008/2009 European Social Survey. We examined whether country-level differences in the perceived status of older adults moderated the effect of age identification on subjective ill-health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  20% of the total variance in older people's subjective ill-health was due to country differences. The hypothesised cross-level interaction was significant in that the negative association between old age identification and subjective health was stronger in countries where the social status of older people is perceived to be lower.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results provide an important insight into being ascribed a higher social status is likely to have a protective function for older people.
authors.affiliation: a Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS-IUL) , Lisbon University Institute ISCTE-IUL , Lisboa , Portugal.
authors.forename: Sibila
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: Hannah J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Swift
authors.forename: Christin-Melanie
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Vauclair
authors.forename: Maria Luísa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bratt
authors.forename: Dominic
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Abrams
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012923:Social Class; D012933:Social Identification
keywords: age identification; ageing; health; older people; status