Memorandum by Mr Frederic Stansfield
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 This response is submitted on an individual
basis. I am interested in ageing policy because I am a 52 year
old man currently not working, but living with an elderly relative.
My last position, some years ago, was as a Research Fellow in
a new university, where my role included duties seeking to generate
interdisciplinary research into aspects of the built environment.
My own undergraduate degree is in Psychology and I have an MSc
in Occupational Psychology, as a result of which I am specifically
concerned about ageing related work issues, over and above the
concern with issues relating to older people that arises from
my personal situation. In between obtaining these degrees I worked
as a systems analyst for a variety of public and private sector
organisations. I also have interests relating to the History and
Philosophy of Psychology, as well as in philosophy itself through
participating in the activities of learned societies and other
events relating to philosophy.
1.2 Your enquiry is specific to the scientific
aspects of ageing, but the issues on this topic are highly interdisciplinary.
Negative attitudes towards ageing are amongst the largest problems
in the United Kingdom today, particularly in relation to employment,
at a time when the proportion of older people in the population
is greatly increasing. This is an issue that needs to be addressed
by social scientific research, but new evidence from the biological
and engineering sciences can help demonstrate the inappropriateness
of current beliefs.
1.3 In this response I am taking ageing
as a general issue without being very specific about particular
age ranges. The age range of scientific interest will vary between
research areas. In relation to the biological bases of ageing,
it is important to have an understanding of human development
over the whole duration of life. In relation to technology and
design, many of the issues affecting the quality of life only
seriously affect the very old. The age group between 50 and 65
has pressing needs in relation to economic and social science
issues, but from the point of view of much science research the
needs of this demographic group are not qualitatively different
from those of younger adults.
2. THE BIOLOGICAL
PROCESSES OF
AGEING
2.1 It is clear that major advances are
being made in relation to the biological processes of ageing,
in particular because of the decoding of DNA and related advances
in genetics. This is an area of research that is already very
active in the United Kingdom and it is obvious that continued
effort is justifiable in it.
2.2 In psychology, there was extensive behavioural
research on ageing in the years following the Second World War.
In relation to work issues, the Nuffield Foundation funded a long-term
project at Cambridge University between 1946 and 1956 (Welford,
1958) and the Medical Research Council followed this by funding
further work at Bristol and Liverpool Universities and University
College London. More recently, this area of research has shared
in the general expansion of university research.
2.3 A current need in psychology (leaving
aside an important need for more research in the social psychology
of ageing that perhaps falls outside the remit of the your committee)
is to relate behavioural research and its application more closely
to biological processes. I suspect that there is a lack of dissemination
of advances in our knowledge of biological processes to applied
psychology. One reason is that, as a rough approximation, the
older universities in the United Kingdom (including Oxford and
Cambridge) are the leaders in relation to biological psychology,
but the main centres for applied psychology are in what were once
known as "redbrick" universities and in universities
with technological origins. Pressure for cheap research in small
projects spread across institutions tends to favour further expansion
of behavioural and observational research as opposed to innovative
work requiring more laboratory facilities. Adoption of new techniques
from biological psychology would be a major change of direction
for psychology consultancies such as those involved in the recruitment
and selection of workers.
2.4 From experience in my everyday life,
more needs to be done in particular to research and/or disseminate
knowledge relating to the effects of nutrition on the ageing process.
In particular, my observation is that good food is crucial to
maintaining an active life for the very elderly (eg those over
approximately 85). There is not enough information to guide those
concerned with shopping and catering for these senior citizens,
not to speak of the need to change the priorities of those who
provide woefully inadequate catering in hospitals and nursing
homes. Not least, research is needed as to how to motivate the
independent elderly to eat properly.
2.5 The scale and nature of current and
likely discoveries in relation to the biological processes of
ageing have major ethical implications, not least in relation
to ethnicity. There is a need to invest in research on the philosophy
of science in relation to biological processes and ageing, concerning
methodological as well as ethical issues.
3. THE APPLICATION
OF RESEARCH
IN TECHNOLOGY
AND DESIGN
TO IMPROVE
THE QUALITY
OF LIFE
OF OLDER
PEOPLE
3.1 In responding to your request for evidence
relating to technology and design I am concentrating on issues
relating to the built environment and transportation. This is
not only because of my own career experience, but also reflects
my opinion after being involved in the development of knowledge
in several disciplines that the built environment should be a
priority area for additional research.
3.2 Knowledge into specific equipment and
aids for older people can often be gained from projects of manageable
size. There tends to be support for such investigations because
relevant charities provide resources and because business people
who wish to be associated with a socially useful enterprise are
glad to develop products. Substantial advances have been made:
the equipment available today for the elderly and disabled is
incomparably better than that a generation ago. Perhaps, however,
one might mention hearing aids as a particular case where there
is scope for advances based on new research.
3.3 In the behavioural sciences, research
by applied psychologists into technology and design, whilst they
would see it as within their remit, has been largely overtaken
by ergonomists who concentrate more closely on experimental investigation,
including behavioural and physiological issues. It is possible
in relation to technology and design relating to equipment for
the aged and for any other purpose that this leads to a concentration
by researchers on physical equipment design rather than on wider
issues as to its acceptability and use.
3.4 Given the widespread use of information
technology in society today, there is an on-going need to commit
resources for research on human-computer interaction involving
people of different ages. For older people, attitudes towards
computers are still often as much an issue as the actual usability
of the hardware and software. However, United Kingdom research
in this area needs to take into account the international scale
on which the computing industry operates: the need is largely
to attract major overseas companies in the industry to bring research
on use of computers by older people to Britain.
3.5 In relation to the built environment,
I would like to highlight four areas where additional large scale
research is needed that would improve life in Britain for everybody,
but in particular for older people. In each of these areas psychological
issues are at least as important as narrow engineering and design
ones if successful change is to be achieved. The areas are:
3.5.1 Accessible and available public transport.
The United Kingdom has built up a transport system in which car
use is essential outside major cities and highly desirable anywhere
outside Central London. For the elderly this is a problem, not
least because cars place cognitive demands upon their drivers
for rapid responses, which is the type of skill that declines
most with age. Replacement of motor car use is of course going
to be needed for other reasons too including needs to avoid pollution
and the depletion of oil reserves. Such replacement appears to
be technically possible, but it is fiercely resisted largely for
psychological reasons. People are by nature active, but in modern
Britain they are largely, and inevitably, constrained to a largely
passive role. People do not have access to cultivate the land
outside their own gardens (where they have them). Manufacturing
work has been largely overtaken by passive processing of information
in service industries. This leaves driving a car as the main way
many people have of controlling what happens in their physical
environment, and they are not prepared to lose this power even
if it results from technology that causes major problems for the
elderly and other disadvantaged sections of the population. Research
is needed not only to identify how to develop a transport system
that will give older people freedom and mobility, but how to provide
such a system that is also acceptable and preferable to those
in the prime of life.
3.5.2 Britain has seen a revolution in retailing
whereby small shops in local neighbourhoods or high-streets have
been replaced by larger stores out-of-town or in shopping malls.
The trouble is that many of the elderly cannot get to these new
shops and even if they can these stores are too big to walk round
(and the displays are at the wrong height if they are in wheelchairs).
This problem is particularly serious for clothes where help with
shopping or use of the Internet cannot compensate for visiting
the shop. Exclusion of the elderly from shops has been made worse
by the closure of post offices following changed pensions administration
arrangements: for many old people a regular visit to the post
office was a vital social activity. The research need is to identify
shop arrangements that will maintain or increase the advantage
of the new types of shops whilst making them usable and attractive
to older people. (Incidentally, I was specifically asked by a
relative to include this suggestion).
3.5.3 There is need for more research into
housing design in relation to an ageing population, both in relation
to the usability of ordinary dwellings by people as they age and
to specialist housing provision for the elderly with special needs.
3.5.4 Good hospital provision is essential
for an ageing population to have a healthy life, but there are
inadequate arrangements in the United Kingdom for research into
health care buildings. After the Second World War, when Britain's
stock of hospitals was in a parlous condition, the Nuffield Foundation
sponsored research into hospital design. This led to the development
of professional expertise into hospital building needs retained
largely within the NHS by dedicated professional staff. This knowledge
resource has been adversely affected by the introduction of private
competition into the provision of hospital buildings, which I
witnessed in a small way whilst as a university researcher submitting
unsuccessful bids for collaborative research in this field. All
too often private designers are unaware of special hospital needs,
often in details such as doorway design as much as the major functions
to be provided by the building. External research facilities are
in consequence needed to supplement and replace NHS resources
in this area.
For the above list I have drawn on a mix everyday
observation and career experience. Needless to say, study of the
likely costs and benefits would be needed before commitments to
major new research.
3.6 Built environment research relating
to older people, and to people in general, would benefit by provision
at a national level of a facility at which buildings could be
prototyped indoors within a laboratory space for behavioural research.
3.7 Lack of able researchers is likely to
be a problem for a research programme into buildings for older
people. It might be addressed in part by recruiting researchers
from the social sciences, where by contrast with built environment
disciplines; surpluses of good graduates are being produced by
the universities and where competing professional opportunities
in private industry are fewer. In addition, I suggest later in
this response (paragraph 4.7) that older people currently not
working could be redeployed, after suitable training, into research.
4. POLICY AND
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
ISSUES
4.1 Research issues including the identification
of priority areas and the allocation of funding is in my observation
well co-ordinated between representatives of the civil service,
universities and other research providers, public organisations
and private organisations. The trouble is that they tend to talk
to each other rather than the ordinary citizens who should ultimately
benefit from applied research, particularly in relation to ageing
issues. This is an issue notably for the age group between 50
and 65, many of whom, since they now longer work and are not yet
of pensionable age, have little contact with the state or charities.
In relation to those above 65, problems in identifying policy
derive from a harsh class divide. On the one hand many senior
citizens depend upon state benefits, and often receive services
distributed by charities (who thereby acquire vested interests)
using public money. On the other, old people on good pensions
feel that distancing themselves from the state and charities (except
as funders and organisers) is a way of maintaining their independence
and status.
4.2 The large involvement of researchers
themselves in the strategic management of United Kingdom research
is amongst the reasons why funding tends to go to existing areas
of research strength, and to be spread amongst many small projects.
This is not so great an issue for research on the biological processes
of ageing which falls within an existing area of research strength,
but it is a problem that needs to be overcome for research in
technology and design for older people, particularly in relation
to the built environment issues indicated above in paragraph 3.5.
4.3 The United Kingdom spends approximately
two per cent of its Gross National Income on research (I am basing
this paragraph on data from the Office of National Statistics,
2004), which is substantially less than other developed countries.
The answer to any question as to whether there is sufficient research
capacity in the United Kingdom is therefore likely to be a resounding
"No". However, the United Kingdom's research effort
is skewed still further because of its concentration on certain
areas, including defence, space research and health research.
The Annual Abstract of Statistics (Table 20.4, page 320) shows
that intramural expenditure by industry on civil research in 2001
was £3,562 million for the chemicals industry (which will
include pharmaceutical research) and £30 million for the
construction industry. These figures are astonishing given the
importance of the construction industry for the United Kingdom
economy, even if they are not strictly comparable, for instance
because research undertaken by property owners into buildings
may be recorded for their own industry sector rather than construction.
The imbalance is not compensated for by central government funds.
I have highlighted in this response the importance of construction
related research for the ageing population. It has recently been
reported to the House of Commons that United Kingdom output could
be increased by £3 billion per year by employing ten per
cent of those over 50 not in work who would like to work (National
Audit Office, 2004). As a researcher over 50 and not working I
cannot therefore believe that several £100 millions extra
money per year (possibly even £1 billion) for research on
ageing could not be found within the United Kingdom economy. This
is the scale of investment needed to bring the construction industry
up to the quality of our world-leading pharmaceuticals industry,
and it could be targeted around built environment and transportation
projects specifically benefiting older people, although not necessarily
exclusively this age group.
4.4 I have made various suggestions for
research within major research disciplines in this response. However,
I do not think that one should worry too much about gaps in research.
It would be better to address sufficient funds to research that
will result in major improvements for specific large issues affecting
the quality of life of older people than to spread money across
many projects too small to be effectively applied.
4.5 The quality of the research capability
in relation to the scientific aspects of ageing is as much a concern
as the lack of such capability in relation to technology and design.
In particular, the current suitability of universities for research
in this area should be questioned. Universities cannot compete
for the best staff in the areas of technology and design not only
because of inadequate resources but also because of needs to maintain
parity of pay and conditions between researchers and teachers
in different disciplines. Many existing staff are "burned-out"
through excessive workloads and lack of career development, setting
aside issues relating to the great variations between the ability
of university staff in different disciplines. Despite improvements
in recent years, research management within higher education is
often poor. Attempts to address these issues within universities
are seriously hampered by resistance to change and by deeply in-grained
organisational culture. If substantial additional funds are to
be invested into scientific aspects of ageing, serious consideration
should be given to using this money to set up a completely new
research institution unencumbered by past history and commitments.
4.6 Research on ageing often benefits from
complex statistical analysis because of the need to compare age
groups either through by repeated observations or by comparisons
of otherwise comparable sample populations. In addition, the ageing
process results from many interacting causes, which have to be
disentangled in the analysis of experiments. Lack of available
researchers with the necessary mathematical and statistical skills
is likely to be a problem that will need to be addressed, for
instance in relation to research in the built environment.
4.7 The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
is a disaster in general: I have pointed out in the Times Higher
Education Supplement (Stansfield, 2004) that it is ageist
as well as methodologically flawed. My complaint is but one amongst
many. But the RAE is particularly disastrous for scientific research
into ageing. Longitudinal research studying people over an extended
period is essential for much research into ageing. The deadlines
of the Research Assessment Exercise discourage such long-term
studies. This periodic assessment of research also discourages
large-scale research, both because this inevitably requires a
longer-term commitment and because many universities press for
a share of any available funds. In suggesting that a new institution
should be created for research on ageing, I hope that this would
enable the funds involved to be separated from those allocated
and assessed by means of the RAE. The success of cognitive research
on ageing financed over ten year periods in psychology in the
early years after the Second World War shows from past experience
the advantages of long-term funding.
4.8 More could and should be done to enable
older people to carry out research into ageing themselves, not
just be subjects for investigation. In making this observation
I am thinking of people who could have previously carried out
other work and who could be retrained to bring in fresh experience,
not just existing academics. Given that a million people between
50 and 65 need to be found work (National Audit Office, 2004),
research activity should at least employ its fair share of them.
If 2 per cent of Gross National Income is spent on research, that
implies 20,000 such new researchers, and productive use could
be found for more.
4.9 Past research into scientific aspects
of ageing has already had huge effects on the quality of life
for elderly people. As just one example, the invention and improvement
of artificial hips has enabled many thousands of old people who
in the past would have been bed-ridden (and would soon have died)
to live an active life. However, there are two major policy obstacles
to the application of scientific research about ageing:
4.9.1 The attitudes of civil servants and
others who define old age for policy making purposes in relation
to retirement ages of 60 or 65, implicitly because of their financial
interests. These dates were set roughly a century ago in relation
to then expectations of life and the affordability of pension
provisions. The psychological and biological evidence provides
little if any justification for considering the mid-sixties as
a major milestone in the ageing process: except in cases of illness
declines in performance due to old age become significant at a
considerably greater age. Yet retirement age is used as a dividing
line for policy making in many areas across government, not just
for matters specifically relating to pay and pensions.
4.9.2 Emphasis on short-term returns on
investment in both public and private sectors of the economy.
The financial returns on capital implied by prevailing interest
rates, even at the comparatively low level of recent years, simply
do not match the human life span. Decisions in relation to the
scientific aspects of ageing need to be made in relation to needs
predicted by demographic statistics and the time needed to carry
out research ready for the time when there will be many more very
old people. This should impose deadlines.
5. CONCLUSION
5.1 As a partial summary to this submission,
the following is a selected list of suggestions made that would
taken together form a programme of action:
(a) Substantial additional resources
should be allocated to research on scientific aspects of ageing.
(b) Because of massive disparities
in existing research effort, extra resources allocated should
be concentrated particularly on investigation relating ageing
to issues in the built environment and transportation.
(c) If built environment and transportation
research receives additional funding; it should be concentrated
on a small number of major topics, encompassing behavioural as
well as technological research.
(d) If new large-scale research is
instigated concerning the built environment, it should be carried
out by a new institution with long-term funding.
(e) Investigators for research into
scientific aspects of ageing should be found in part from the
one million people aged between 50 and 65 who are not working
and who would like to work.
REFERENCES
National Audit Office (2004) Welfare to Work:
Tackling the Barriers to the Employment of Older People. Report
by the Comptroller and Auditor General. HC 1026. Session 2003-04:
15 September 2004. Ordered to be printed by the House of Commons.
Office of National Statistics (1994) Annual
Abstract of Statistics. 2004 edition. Number 140.
Stansfield. F. R. (2004) "RAE for the vain
but not the old", Letter to the Times Higher Education
Supplement, 28 May 2004, p 19.
Welford, A. T. (1958) Ageing and Human Skill.
London: Oxford University Press for the Trustees of the Nuffield
Foundation
September 2004
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