Exploring the relationship between race, older age, and health inequality in the UK: the experience of racialised minority older adults living in the UK

This paper responds to recent calls for sociological and qualitative research on health inequality in older age by drawing on findings from a photovoice study exploring ageing among older adults from different racialised groups living in the UK. We highlight the lived intersections between age, race and health by focusing on two issues identified across the data set - experiences of racism in healthcare, and responses to racism experienced in healthcare. Across these themes we explore experiences of feeling silenced, differential treatment, structural racism, personal interpretations of racism, and coping strategies. The study design is premised on an anti-racist approach to research involving participants and public and patient involvement (PPI) representatives throughout the process. Sixty nine people of six different racialised ethnicities were recruited for the photovoice work, sharing 1126 photographs. Polytextual and reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the photovoice data; the experience of racism in healthcare was identified to cut across the participants accounts. Key concepts from critical race theory including intersectionality, vigilant coping, epistemic injustice, and white supremacy, were drawn on to consider participant accounts. Ultimately, we show that the everyday experience of racism must be understood as a structural and materially constructed, intersectional experience that shapes health and illness in older age.