More people are working into older age, raising questions about how many hours they can work before their health becomes compromised. This paper models work-hour tipping points for mental health and vitality among older Australian workers aged 50–70 years. We use longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, 2005–2016 (about 44,900 observations), and bootstrapping Three Stage Least Squares (3SLS) estimation techniques to adjust for reverse and reciprocal relationships between wages, work hours and health. Our approach corrects for heteroscedasticity in the system equation error terms, and we estimate models on the relatively healthy older adults who have remained employed into older age. Among these older workers we observe weekly thresholds of 39–40 hours beyond which mental health and vitality decline. This average, however, hides variability in work-hour limits linked to overall health and occupation. Thus, weekly tipping points for blue- and pink-collar jobs are 7–9 hours lower compared to white-collar jobs, and even wider gaps (11 hours) are apparent for workers with poorer physical functioning, which becomes common as people age. Our modelling reveals that age is not the biggest limiting factor for how many hours older adults can work, rather their health and the types of jobs are critical, and likely widen the gap in who ages successfully or not.

Previous studies have shown that family networks evolve over time. Nonetheless, little research has linked family expansion or shrinking to the levels of available family-based social capital in older adults’ family networks. To address this research gap, this paper explores the following question: to what extent are changes in family composition and family-related life events associated with current levels of family-based social capital in later years? We use the two waves of the longitudinal CIGEV-LIVES Vivre-Leben-Vivere study, a large survey addressing the family and health conditions of older people in Switzerland. We combine data on life events occurring during old age and family configurations. We find that family networks are indeed highly dynamic, with distinct patterns of losses and gains observed among respondents. Adding and omitting significant family members has distinct significant effects on social capital, while family-related life events only have marginal effects.

Ageing has become a ubiquitous concern in European policy. Critics have bemoaned that such policies are not so much about older people but rather about finding justification for other policy aims, such as economic growth or technological innovation. However, such critiques do not capture the co-constitutive relationship between ageing and innovation shaping one another. Using the example of the Silver Economy discourse, we show that ageing has not only been reframed under the imperatives of economic and innovation policies, but that ageing itself can also affect those policies. In its formative stages, the Silver Economy was characterised by a number of tensions between, on the one hand, common ageist assumptions about old age and, on the other hand, alternative visions of what ageing could mean as a policy field. However, these potentials have later been domesticated within the broader field of Active and Healthy Ageing. In this Forum Article, we therefore hypothesise what it would mean to take ageing more seriously as a driver of progressive politics as indicated in those formative years of the Silver Economy. Such a speculative take on current old-age policy, we hold, opens up a number of fruitful avenues and new interfaces between critical researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in driving progressive politics.

Older adults' engagement in various prosocial activities is a salient question in present-day societies that aim to promote active ageing. However, there are only a few studies focusing on associations between several types of prosocial activities, and they have rarely considered help to relatives and friends separately. Moreover, there is lack of studies considering informal monetary help and charity donations when analysing multiple prosocial activities. Using population-based data of older Finns (N = 2,184), we examined whether providing informal help (i.e. practical help, financial support or personal care) to relatives and friends is associated with participation in volunteering and charity, respectively. Overall, 5 per cent of the participants provided all examined forms of informal help and volunteered, 16 per cent provided two types of help and volunteered, and 23 per cent provided one type of help and volunteered. In addition, 9 per cent of the participants provided all types of informal help and made charitable donations, 33 per cent provided two types of help and made charitable donations, and 54 per cent provided one type of help and made charitable donations. Practical help and care channelled outside the household were associated with an increased probability of volunteering, although they were not associated with the probability of making charitable donations. Practical help, financial support and personal care provided to friends were particularly important predictors of volunteering and charity. These results are discussed in the context of the role overload and role extension hypotheses.

This qualitative study explores the experiences of 23 professional baby-boomers in Australia who are challenging the traditional employment and retirement pathway through non-standard employment (NSE). We focus on professional part-time, casual and self-employed work within the kaleidoscope of various working arrangements that form NSE. Using a phenomenographic approach, we identified variations in how these older baby-boomers experience engagement in NSE. Our findings revealed five interrelated hierarchical categories of description, which posit a generally positive view of NSE and highlight financial stability, flexibility, continued activity, social ties and maintaining self-identity as key conceptions for work engagement. Our study suggests that NSE is an important and under-researched part of the labour market for baby-boomer professionals, that it can offer greater opportunities for engagement and that the traditional hard-boundary view of retirement as a defined lifestage is softening. It extends our understanding of baby-boomer engagement with NSE in the labour market and offers findings that may inform future policy and practice.

The association between everyday activities, health and subjective wellbeing in older adults has mostly been examined using different activities as separate variables. Which activities are likely to come together in individuals’ daily time-use patterns, or in what context, has not yet been analysed. This study looks at a broad range of spontaneously reported activities, their location and social context to identify latent behavioural classes. The data used in the study came from a sample of 200 non-institutionalised adults aged 65 and above. Activity data were collected using the Experience Sampling Method. Generalised structural equation modelling was used to identify the classes. Three distinctive behavioural classes, representing different lifestyles, emerged: passive domiciliary, active functional and social recreational. They constituted 30, 53 and 17 per cent of the sample, respectively. Class membership was related to individuals’ age, education and selected dimensions of health measured using the Nottingham Health Profile: energy levels and emotional response. There was consistency between the objectively measured class and an individual's subjective assessment of their physical and emotional health. While both class membership and subjective wellbeing were associated with health, the relationship between class and wellbeing was weak and fully explained by socio-demographic and health-related variables.

Economic development in Latin America has facilitated the broadening and improvement of governmental services in public health, social security and public administration. These improvements, particularly in public health, have precipitated changes in rates of morbidity and mortality. Many countries have also experienced a fall in birth rates during this period. The result of people living longer and having fewer children is a progressive ageing of Latin American societies. This article explores some critical questions posed by the ageing of populations in these societies. Within the context of varying patterns of national development, special emphasis is placed on the systemic potential for politico-administrative response in the area of social and health services.

Ageing has been referred to as a spiritual journey. Empirical data from gerontological research and paractice literature on the phenomenon of late-life reminiscence reveal a sense of self as process, and ageing as a spiritual journey for a number of older persons. The empirical data experiential reports on reminiscence from the elderly themselves point to a life trajectory of ‘joruney’ of the self that moves from a possessive attachment to an identification with the physical self, significant others, and material belongings to a view of self as a process, as ‘being’ rather than ‘having’ within and as part of a larger process. A process conception of the self derived from William James, contemporary social science, and process theology is delineated to explain the nature of this journey and this process. Two older women who illustrate the process conception of self in their reminiscences are presented, followed by a discussion of the spiritual implications of this conception.

Alice Munro's 2001 short story ‘The Bear Came Over the Mountain’ and its 2006 film version, Away from Her, directed and adapted for the screen by Sarah Polley, are two interconnected narratives through which diverse (and even divergent) representations of romantic love and memory in later life can be analysed. Even if the two texts are constructed on an apparently simple plot line, which basically depicts the last phase of a 44-year-long marriage once the wife, Fiona, presents symptoms of dementia and is interned in a retirement home, they both allow for, at least, two contrasted interpretations. As will be demonstrated, these two possible readings unveil different cultural, social and psychological facets of memory in connection with late-life expressions of love; and each of them contributes, in their own way, to the construction of a dialogical narrative that mediates between the complexities of old age, dementia and gender difference, while at the same time demonstrating the power of literature and the cinema to reflect and refract the complexities of contemporary forms of ageing.

Recent international research on retirement neglects the macro social context in which the process occurs. In an attempt to redress this neglect this paper analyses the phenomenon of retirement in Japan. It is argued, firstly, that different understandings of egalitarianism and individualism structure public policies about retirement in different countries. Japan with its different culture but highly developed economy provides a unique point of comparison with other developed countries because it can provide evidence of cultural values affecting individual motivations to action. In Japan, a strong group orientation as opposed to individualism in other developed countries has two consequences relevant to retirement. Firstly, individuals are unwilling to separate from their work group and, secondly, they are not socialised for leisure. Evidence is presented on how macro social factors influence work participation and attitudes. Finally, multivariate analyses show that cultural factors operate in conjunction with economic ones in retirement decisions. It is concluded that macro-social factors cannot be neglected in studying retirement and that caution is needed in taking policy innovations for dealing with population ageing from one culture and another.

Substantial research shows that cardiovascular disease is a major cause of disability in the United States of America (USA) and worldwide. Despite the well-documented significance of intimate partnerships for cardiovascular health and disease management, how relationship quality contributes to the functional health of older adults diagnosed with cardiovascular disease is much less understood than mental health and mortality risk. Informed by the disablement process model and the lifecourse perspective, this study examines the association between relationship quality and functional limitations among partnered older adults aged 50 years and older diagnosed with cardiovascular disease in the USA. Data are from the Health and Retirement Study, 2006–2012 (N = 1,355). Multi-level linear regression analyses show that baseline negative relationship quality is significantly associated with increased functional limitations over the two- and four-year follow-ups. Additionally, the link between negative relationship quality and functional limitations is stronger among older adults with lower household income over a two-year span, compared to their higher-income counterparts, suggesting that these older adults are doubly disadvantaged by higher relationship strains and limited economic resources. Our findings demonstrate the significance of relationship quality for the functional health of older adults with cardiovascular disease and shed light on the importance of marriage/partnerships as an important social context for a critical stage in the disablement process (i.e. functional limitations).

This paper examines associations between early and mid-lifecourse events with economic activity in later life. These lifecourse trajectories are in turn examined for their impact on the pathways of men and women to retirement, including whether these pathways are perceived by individuals as been chosen or imposed. Data are from the three waves (2005, 2008 and 2011) of the French version of the Gender and Generations survey and comprise a sub-sample of 2,016 respondents in the birth cohort 1941–1960 who participated in all three waves. The analysis is undertaken within a gender perspective and in the context of the (de)standardisation of the lifecourse. The results show that mid-life and later-life work history, job category, employment sector and economic activity are influenced by early lifecourse events for both men and for women. Different pathways to retirement are observed according to institutional factors that determine access to pension rights. Women whose family formation occurred early, together with women who had an absence of family events (partnership or childlessness), were much more likely to be economically active in later life than men with the same characteristics. The results suggest that institutionalised (standardised) lifecourse patterns exist simultaneously with individualised (destandardised) patterns.

In the province of Quebec, Canada, long-term residential care is provided by two types of facility: privately owned facilities in which care is privately financed and delivered and publicly subsidised accredited facilities. There are few comparative data on the residents served by the private and public sectors, and none on whether their respective population has changed over time. Such knowledge would help plan services for older adults who can no longer live at home due to increased disabilities. This study compared (a) the resident populations currently served by private and public facilities and (b) how they have evolved over time. The data come from two cross-sectional studies conducted in 1995–2000 and 2010–2012. In both studies, we randomly selected care settings in which we randomly selected older residents. In total, 451 residents from 145 settings assessed in 1995–2000 were compared to 329 residents from 102 settings assessed in 2010–2012. In both study periods, older adults housed in the private sector had fewer cognitive and functional disabilities than those in public facilities. Between the two study periods, the proportion of residents with severe disabilities decreased in private facilities while it remained over 80 per cent in their public counterparts. Findings indicate that private facilities care today for less-disabled older adults, leaving to public facilities the heavy responsibility of caring for those with more demanding needs. These trends may impact both sectors' ability to deliver proper residential care.

Social isolation of older adults is difficult to break through, and interventions that focus on network development or enhanced social participation are hardly effective, especially when the older adults have been isolated for a long time and have problems in multiple life domains. This study aimed to investigate the needs and subjective experiences of this less-researched group and obtain a deeper understanding of their goals and priorities. The study involved a qualitative study with 25 socially isolated persons who receive assistance from a social worker in an individual guidance trajectory. Data were collected via repeated in-depth interviews with the older adults. By directing the focus towards their subjective experiences, the study gives insight into the ‘experiential effectivity’ of the intervention. It shows what their experienced problems were, and to what degree they benefited from the intervention in this respect. The experience of personal attention and involvement of the social workers represents the most relevant results for them. The participants have no need for network development or engagement in local communities. Yet, the help offered by the social workers produces other results for them, such as solved practical problems, emotional support, more self-sufficiency, a point of contact or a safety net that was not there before. This knowledge can help to improve the quality of intervention for this target group.

While having social support can contribute to better health, those in poor health may be limited in their capacity to receive social support. We studied the health factors associated with social support among community-dwelling older adults in Singapore. We used data from the third follow-up interviews (2014–2016) of 16,943 participants of the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a population-based cohort of older Singapore Chinese. Participants were interviewed at a mean age of 73 years (range 61–96 years) using the Duke Social Support Scale (DUSOCS). We first applied ordinary least squares regression to DUSOCS scores and found that those with instrumental limitations, poor self-rated health, cognitive impairment and depression had lower social support scores. We then applied latent class analysis to DUSOCS answer patterns and revealed four groups of older adults based on the source and amount of social support. Among them, compared to the ‘overall supported’ group (17%) with the highest social support scores and broad support from family members and non-family individuals, the ‘family restricted’ (50%) group had the lowest social support scores and only received support from children. Health factors associated with being ‘family restricted’ were instrumental limitations (odds ratio (OR) = 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.19–1.49), poor self-rated health (OR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.28–1.53), cognitive impairment (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.04–1.37) and depression (OR = 2.50, 95% CI = 2.22–2.82). We found that while older adults in poor health have lower social support scores, they were more likely to receive a lot of support from children. Our results showed that lower social support scores among Singaporean older adults in poor health may not indicate lack of social support, but rather that social support is restricted in scope and intensified around children. These results may apply to other Asian societies where family plays a central role in elder-care.

Quantitative research on how grandparents fare when looking after grandchildren has mainly focused on general wellbeing indicators, showing that grandparenting is linked to higher wellbeing. However, global assessments of wellbeing reveal little about activity-specific experiences and only indirectly provide insights about how grandparents experience grandchild care. Whereas qualitative studies have observed diversity in grandparenting experiences, quantitative insights regarding potential strains of grandparenting are scarce. This study examines directly to what extent grandparents experience supplementary grandchild care as burdensome and obligatory, and tests – building on role strain theory – how differences in grandparents' characteristics can explain these experiences. Analyses are based on data collected in 2015 and 2018 among 3,429 Dutch grandparents who look after grandchildren. Descriptive findings show that 20 per cent of the studied grandparents experienced grandparenting as fairly/very burdensome and 8 per cent as fairly/very obligatory. Ordinal logistic regression models with random effects show that more-intense grandparenting situations were linked to higher levels of burden and obligation. Moreover, grandparents in poor health, higher education and those with other responsibilities (e.g. paid work) were relatively more likely to experience higher levels of burden and obligation. Our findings imply that the understanding of non-custodial grandparenting as only rewarding might be one-sided, as positive and negative experiences can go together. There appears to be substantial heterogeneity in how grandparents experience looking after their grandchildren.

Frailty prevalence is higher in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with high-income countries when measured by biomedical frailty models, the most widely used being the frailty phenotype. Frailty in older people is becoming of global public health interest as a means of promoting health in old age in LMICs. As yet, little work has been done to establish to what extent the concept of frailty, as conceived according to ‘western’ biomedicine, has cross-cultural resonance for a low-income rural African setting. This study aimed to investigate the meaning of frailty contextually, using the biomedical concept of the frailty phenotype as a framework. Qualitative interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of older adults, their care-givers and community representatives in rural northern Tanzania. Thirty interview transcripts were transcribed, translated from Kiswahili to English and thematically analysed. Results reveal that despite superficial similarities in the understanding of frailty, to a great extent the physical changes highlighted by the frailty phenotype were naturalised, except when these were felt to be due to a scarcity of resources. Frailty was conceptualised as less of a physical problem of the individual, but rather, as a social problem of the community, suggesting that the frailty construct may be usefully applied cross-culturally when taking a social equity focus to the health of older people in LMICs.

Family care-giving is associated with social isolation, which can lead to adverse health and wellbeing outcomes among family care-givers. The role of geographic distance in care-giver social isolation (CSI) is unclear and has received mixed research findings. Framed by the Ecological Model of Caregiver Isolation, this study examined the relationship between geographic distance and CSI, including the interaction between geographic distance and care-giving intensity for CSI. Linear regression and analysis of covariance were used to test these hypotheses using a sub-set of family care-givers from the 2012 Canadian General Social Survey (N = 2,881). Care-givers living a short distance from receivers reported lower levels of social isolation than co-resident, moderate-distance and long-distance care-givers. Being involved in higher-intensity care-giving as the primary care-giver, undertaking more care-giving tasks and providing care more frequently resulted in higher CSI scores. Long- and moderate-distance care-givers reported greater CSI than co-resident and short-distance care-givers only when providing higher-intensity care-giving. Employing a granulated measure of geographic distance positioned within an ecological framework facilitates an understanding of the nuanced association between geographic proximity and CSI. Furthermore, the identified interaction effects between geographic distance and care-giving intensity on CSI further explicate the complexity of care-giving experiences. The findings are relevant for programmes supporting care-givers in different contexts, especially distance care-givers.

This paper starts from the premise that novelists have to some extent filled the gap left by mainstream feminism's relative silence about gendered ageing. To develop the argument, it explores the representation of memory loss and its impact on identity and self-image in Norah Hoult's novel, There Were No Windows, which was first published in 1944. The novel is set in London during the Second World War, when the traumas of a city experiencing the Blitz and the blackout reflected the terror and inner darkness experienced by the principal character, Claire Temple, herself a minor novelist, under the onslaught of dementia. There Were No Windows constructs the character of Claire through the combination of her own often-disordered thoughts and the perspectives of those who live with or visit her. This paper focuses throughout on ageing as a gendered experience and the construction of the older woman. It identifies the different gendered discourses of ageing that are imposed on Claire in order to construct her as the female ‘Other’, in the sense theorised by Simone de Beauvoir. It also relates the novel to contemporaneous medical and sociological discourses of ageing and old age. Hoult's implicitly feminist reading of Claire's condition brings the issue of gender to the foreground of the novel's treatment of old age. Through my reading of There Were No Windows, I suggest what it is that fictions of ageing can offer those working in the field of gerontology.