A healthy diet and regular physical activity (PA) are delineated as healthy behaviours. Their implementation is associated with better health outcomes and improved quality of life. There is less evidence of a relationship between dietary patterns (DP) and PA, especially in adults aged ≥ 85. Hence, this cross-sectional study investigates the association between DP and PA in people of this age group, using the data from The Kawasaki Aging and Well-Being Project. Brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire was used to estimate the intake of fifty-eight types of food. After energy adjustment, principal component analysis was performed to identify DP. PA was measured objectively using an accelerometer and subjectively using a questionnaire validated for this age group. Thousand participants (median age: 86·9 years, men: 49·9 %) were included in the analysis. Three major DP (DP1 ‘various foods’, DP2 ‘red meats and coffee’, DP3 ‘bread and processed meats’) were identified. DP1 ‘various foods’ was similar to DP previously named ‘healthy’ or ‘prudent’ and showed a positive association with PA time (PAT) as measured by accelerometer (B, 6·25; 95 % CI 0·13, 12·37) and relatively shorter sedentary behaviour (SB) time. DP2 ‘red meats and coffee’ and DP3 ‘bread and processed meats’ were negatively associated with PAT and positively associated with SB time. This study observed the relationship between diet and PA behaviours in adults aged ≥ 85, with healthier and more food-diverse DP associated with longer PAT and relatively unhealthy DP with shorter PAT.

This article explores older owner occupiers in lower value properties who, having acquired their home through the Right to Buy (RTB) in the 1980s, are now experiencing housing-related challenges in older age. This article outlines the views and perceptions of older owner occupiers, social landlords, voluntary groups and housing organisations to explore the legacy of the RTB. Current and future policy challenges in the area include the differentiation of home owners, difficulties of selling property with low equity in older age and the relationship between health and housing. This article calls to widen the analysis of the long-term impact of the RTB to owner occupiers in lower value properties and notes that ‘ageing in place’ goes beyond looking at people’s current house to the linked housing choices available to them. We recommend that policy support be extended to older home owners to increase housing choice in older age.

The impact of an ageing workforce on the workplace is a concern internationally. Governments are increasingly encouraging the continued labour market participation of older workers, seeking to remove previous barriers to the extension of working lives and give more choice to workers. Despite these legislative drivers, research has consistently found a lack of systematic approaches by employers to prepare and benefit from these demographic and labour market changes. In this paper, qualitative research is drawn upon to examine how managers and older workers think about age and ageing in the workplace; the support put in place for older workers, as well as future priorities; and the lived experiences of the older workers. It is highlighted that employees’ age and fitness for work is treated on an individual basis, rather than having formal plans to manage the workplace for older workers. This thus indicates a hands-off approach from management.

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on creating age-friendly cities to accommodate the changing needs of older people and to promote their overall health and wellbeing. This paper focuses on some of the urban planning implications related to maintaining the social health, as a main component of overall health and wellbeing, of older people. Specifically, we look at the role and accessibility of third places (popular public places where many people go to socialise) in relation to older people living in different neighbourhood built-form patterns, and how these factors impact on the formation of absent, weak and strong social ties. The data draw upon interviews with 54 older people living in different neighbourhood built-form patterns on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. Our findings demonstrate the significant role third places have in affording older people opportunities to engage in the social lives of their local communities, thus contributing to their social health and overall wellbeing. This research supports previous studies relating to the accessibility of amenities by re-emphasising the importance of planning for the provision of third places that are conveniently located and easily accessible by older people. The paper concludes by arguing for the planning of transport and third-place interventions in Australia's sprawling suburban landscapes to allow older people more opportunities to be socially connected.

The combination of population ageing and climate change is creating a new threat for many Australian coastal hamlets vulnerable to the impact of tropical cyclones. Increasingly, elderly people are facing future tropical cyclones alone, without support from family and friends, relying instead on already stretched government and authority resources, despite Emergency Management Australia's (EMA) policy expectation that all citizens must be self-reliant. This research explored the future self-reliance and disaster resilience of coastal hamlets through the lens of the Social Cognitive Theory by outlining the findings from focus groups, personal interviews and questionnaires involving participants over 65 years of age, residing in townships previously impacted by Cyclone Larry (in 2006) and Cyclone Yasi (in 2011). Participants recalled a lack of social support following the cyclones, a fear of evacuating their homes, as well as the trauma of recovering from such intense destruction. Respondents were also concerned about the physical, cognitive and financial impacts of ageing on their ability to prepare and recover from future cyclones, frightened that experiences from the past might be repeated in the future, contributing to feelings of isolation, frustration and the loss of community, and a rethinking of ageing in the place of their choice. These considerations impact on the dependence EMA has that all citizens will remain self-reliant when faced with a natural hazard and should be considered when making future policy decisions in relation to more isolated coastal townships.

How to respond to an ageing society has become an increasingly important question, for employers, workers and policy makers. Here we critically engage with that debate, arguing that future approaches to the relationship between work and age should take into account multiple influences on older worker behaviour, including the combination of economic, lifecourse and personal priorities. We consider the international consensus that has emerged about the primacy of work as the solution to what to do with a long life. We then address the uncertain nature of work as it affects older workers, and discuss the commodification of time in relation to a productivist approach to demographic ageing and the attitudes of older workers themselves. A tension is noted between pressures for continuity and discontinuity within the adult lifecourse which is often eclipsed within a policy discourse that tends to focus on continuity as a route to social legitimacy. Thinking about life-time as a meta-narrative, a tension between existential life priorities and commodification, may help to explain the ease with which ‘live longer–work longer’ policies both dominate and obscure the potential of a long life. Finally, we examine the implications for work–life balance and suggest this needs to be radically re-thought when addressing the purpose of a longer working life and the promise of a long life in general.

Australian providers of aged care are facing a rapidly ageing population and growth in demand for services. Beyond a sheer increase in consumers and major regulatory changes from Federal Government, many customers are becoming progressively discontented with a medically dominated model of care provision. This period of turbulence presents an opportunity for new entrants and forward-thinking organisations to disrupt the market by designing a more compelling value offering. Under this line of inquiry, the researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis study of over 37 Australian aged care organisations, clustering providers into six business model typologies. The study revealed that providers of aged care are becoming increasingly aware of emerging customer needs, and, in addressing these needs, are seeking to establish innovative models of care provision. This paper therefore presents a future model of care, along with implications for practice and policy.

At any time of the year, and particularly in the colder months of the southern part of the Australian continent, many caravans and mobile homes can be seen on the roads of northern Australia, and Queensland, in particular. Mainly during June, July, August and September, Grey Nomads frequent the northern half of Australia, to escape the colder climate of southern Australia. The term Grey Nomad is applied to the section of the older Australian population who use their retirement years as a time to experience travel once freed from the constraints of work and family commitments. This paper draws on research conducted about the health and social needs of Grey Nomads holidaying in a Central Queensland, Australia, coastal location. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 20 participants. Contingency plans concerning wellness, wellbeing and medical conditions all formed a part of the Grey Nomads’ daily existence while travelling. Many important and lasting friendships and social support networks were formed during the journeying and sojourning phases of the travel. Many of the Grey Nomads interviewed felt the need to keep in contact with home, even though they willingly chose to leave it, and to be ‘away’. Just as the Grey Nomad cohort have concerns and solutions about their health and related issues, so too, they have concerns for social networks and family connectedness while travelling in Australia.

This Presidential Address is a call to arms for the profession. It outlines many areas in which we could be major contributors if we are prepared to undertake the necessary research, discussion and seminar work. In covering the historical landscape of actuarial work, emphasis is placed on looking to the future in life assurance, pensions and investment. Education, public interest and marketing are all covered in the context of what we need to do and the need to get it done sooner rather than later. Our future, and that of the Faculty, is again opened up for debate to ensure that we remain objectively focussed.

This paper briefly examines the options for reform proposed by the Pensions Commission in 2004 to sustain the United Kingdom state pension system in response to an ageing population. It further explores, under various scenarios, the long-term viability of immigration as an alternative policy response, by developing a population projection model to determine the replacement migration levels which would be required to maintain contributions (taxes) at current levels, using population data and assumptions in the public domain. The economic and social implications of immigration-based policies are also considered. This paper does not consider the specific policy recommendations in the Commission's Second Report published in autumn 2005, which at the time of writing was undergoing an internal consultation process.

The results indicate that not only does each policy option proposed by the Pensions Commission require changes which are too large for the policy to be implemented on its own, but that a combination of options is likely to require discomforting changes at the individual level when considered under plausible scenarios. Economic and social implications aside, the results also indicate that immigration is an inefficient and ineffective way of mitigating demographic ageing. The required replacement migration levels are abnormally high and too volatile for it to be considered as a viable policy alternative.