Ageing Well in Later Life: Health Behaviour Change and Implications for the Social Care of Widows in England

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England has experienced an increase in life expectancy which continues to stress the social care system.The proposed mixed method research will examine, over time, the impact of widowhood on olderwomen's (60+ years) health behaviour who are ageing well, the social determinants of such changes,and the implications for social care receipt in later life. Use and analysis of variables (demographic,socio-economic, physical, medical, lifestyle measures, social and civic participation) identified in theEnglish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (waves 1-8) as well as 30 semi-structured interviews will beused to address the following research questions:1. How do the demographic, health status, health behaviour and socio-economic characteristics ofwidows differ from those among other groups of marital status? (cross-sectional)2. How do health status and health behaviour change as marital status changes? (longitudinal)3. What are the care needs of widows?4. How effective are local services in meeting these needs and how can services be improved to bettersupport widows?The goal of this research is to identify modifiable behaviour change determinants that can assistindividuals age well, reduce care needs, and the costs for individual payers and local governmentspending.