Abstract
This study explores the complex relationship between paid work and participation in exercise and leisure-time physical activity among older women. The role of other factors that enable, motivate and constrain physical activity is also investigated. National context is explored using British Household Panel Survey data. Interviews with key stakeholders and women in their fifties, sixties and seventies explore individual motivation and decision-making in depth. The research enhances understanding of the relationship between employment and participation in physical activity among older women by highlighting positive as well as negative interactions. However, the overall relationship appears to be dominated by the negative constraints on time imposed by employment. Confounding factors include level and type of activity, type of employment, age and health. Psychological, social, environmental and economic factors are also important. These findings have implications for the development of effective interventions within the context of an extending working lives policy agenda.
Highlights
This study investigates how time in paid work impacts on the participation of older women in exercise and leisure-time physical activity (PA)
This study explores the complex relationship between paid work and participation in exercise and leisure-time physical activity among older women
The research highlights some general patterns in the relationship between participation in physical leisure activities and older age
Summary
This study investigates how time in paid work impacts on the participation of older women in exercise and leisure-time physical activity (PA). The context for the study is the promotion of active ageing as a major policy objective in the UK and more widely (European Commission 2010; Department of Health 2011, 2010). This can be seen partly as a response to evidence that while people are living longer they are often doing so in poor health (Marmot 2010; Eurostat 2012). Such considerations raise questions over the implications of recent increases in statutory pension ages (SPA) for health and well-being in later life. Ill health can induce temporary withdrawals from the labour force and is an important determinant of permanent withdrawal associated with early retirement (Disney, Emmerson, and Wakefield 2006; Jones, Rice, and Roberts 2009). Beatty, Fothergill, and Macmillan (2000, 620) suggest that employed people with health problems are ‘ vulnerable to redundancy and job loss’
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