Inequalities in Ageing Well and the Significance of Transitions in Later Life (TRILL)

TRILL addresses the impact of later life transitions on opportunities for ageing well.

Sustaining an ageing population calls for increased focus on prolonging good health and wellbeing across the whole life span, including old age, and later life transitions transpire as important windows of opportunity for strengthening the possibilities for ageing well through interventions and policies.

Ageing is remarkably unequal, even in a comprehensive welfare state like Norway, and requires attention to key stratifying factors, gender and socioeconomic position (SEP), which are core dimensions in TRILL.

The project builds on the life course approach, which strengths are the emphasis on change over time, thereby highlighting possibilities for growth and adaption also in old age, and the importance of significant others (linked lives) and local context in shaping individual life courses.

By using theoretical concepts of differential capability and resilience, the project does justice to the substantial heterogeneity among older people, in particular among those with low SEP.

Data from two large longitudinal studies (NorLAG, the Tromsø study (uit.no), combined with register information and qualitative data, enable the disentangling of potentially vulnerable transitions in later life; analyses of the differential effects of transitions on wellbeing and functioning; and assessment of how some older people manage later life transitions well despite low SEP (resilience).

TRILL is a collaboration between NOVA OsloMet, Akershus University Hospital, the National Institute of Public Health and three leading institutes for ageing research in Europe. By bringing together scholars from different disciplines, the project will contribute to new knowledge at the intersection between health promotion, ageing well and social inequalities.