Originally published in 1983, this cross-national study had three aims. First, to examine the cross-national differences among the elderly community in the prevalence of psychiatric problems and their relationship to other health and social problems. Second, to examine the differences in health care of aged people, with a view to providing a framework for improvement of health and support services to those elderly with psychiatric problems who reside in the community. Finally, the differences in the course and outcome of psychiatric disability with implications for the role of healthcare and community resources in reducing chronic disability or its consequences.

This study included the examination of two randomly drawn probability samples of people over the age of sixty-five years and resident in the cities of New York and London. The people studied were reinterviewed after one year in order to record their use of health services and the course of their symptoms, or the development of new symptoms. Social and medical factors were studied in relation to psychopathological conditions.