Global awareness about an increase of chronic diseases and premature mortality due to ‘unhealthy eating’ and ‘sedentary lifestyles’ is embedded in various discourses shaped by relationships and power. In this article, I investigate the role of physical activity in the lives of middle-aged women in Australia and how their experiences with exercise influence the way they position themselves within the context of inter-discursivity regarding fitness and ‘healthy ageing’. Results reveal how ‘knowledge’ about ‘healthy lifestyles’ is created and accessed, and how women make sense of the healthism discourse, the obesity crisis, and discourses around menopause and ageing. The participants for this study are nine women in their forties to sixties who volunteered to participate in semi-structured interviews after completing an online survey about physical activity that was part of a larger project. Their accounts of health and fitness, healthy eating, weight management, mental wellbeing and ageing are categorised and interpreted in a post-structuralist framework through the lens of feminist relational discourse analysis. Results show that all women are influenced by healthism discourses as well as being affected by assumptions and recommendations for ageing, menopausal women. They shape female identity by adopting, but also by resisting, discourses around their bodies and minds.

This paper examines the associations between social participation and individual life satisfaction among older adults. It specifically considers the diversity of the practices and social inequalities among this population. For analyses, we used a large survey of individuals of 65 years and older conducted in 2011 in Switzerland (N = 2,727). The first set of linear regression analyses examines Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale and its association with various indicators of social participation. While the second set of logistic regression addresses the issue of social inequalities by evaluating the impacts of gender, age group, region and education on social participation indicators that are significantly associated with the satisfaction with life score. Our results stressed the importance of combining multiple forms of participation for life satisfaction and shows that some forms are particularly meaningful: in particular, the involvement in associations, visitation of family or visitation of friends/acquaintances and church attendance. When inequalities among older adults are considered, having rich and varied social participation, being involved in associations and maintaining private sociability with non-kin appear more elitist. While institutionalised and/or private sociability types of participation appear particularly significant for older adults’ life satisfaction, the most traditional integration forms – i.e. family and religions – are crucial for the more vulnerable. Implications for active ageing was equally discussed as well.

The low retirement age has imposed a heavy economic burden on the pension system in China, leading to an ongoing debate about raising the retirement age. To understand the potential costs of raising the retirement age, we need to consider the health effects of retirement policies. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) from 2011 to 2015, this study employs the statutory retirement age as the exogenous variable of retirement and applies a fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) to examine the effect of retirement on the health of Chinese elderly people. We find that retirement has a non-significant effect on health with respect to a series of health indicators, different bandwidths of RDD and sub-sample groups. The finding is also robust across different retirement definitions and retirement ages. This result may be attributed to the minimal changes in income and lifestyles before and after retirement. Moreover, the findings of this study provide important evidence for policy makers to increase retirement ages in China.

Ever more people are in paid work following the age of state pension availability, and yet the experience of working in this phase of the late career has been little studied. We interviewed a purposive sample of 25 Swedish people in their mid- to late sixties and early seventies, many of whom were or had recently been working while claiming an old-age pension. The data were analysed with constant comparative analysis in which we described and refined categories through the writing of analytic memos and diagramming. We observed that paid work took place within a particular material, normative and emotional landscape: a stable and secure pension income decommodifying these workers from the labour market, a social norm of a retired lifestyle and a looming sense of contraction of the future. This landscape made paid work in these years distinctive: characterised by immediate intrinsic rewards and processes of containing and reaffirming commitments to jobs. The oldest workers were able to craft assertively the temporal flexibility of their jobs in order to protect the autonomy and freedom that retirement represented and retain favoured job characteristics. Employed on short-term (hourly) contracts or self-employed, participants continually reassessed their decision to work. Participation in paid work in the retirement years is a distinctive second stage in the late career which blends the second and third ages.

Across the world acute hospitals are under unprecedented pressures due to shrinking budgets and increasing demand, against this backdrop they are also experiencing record levels of activity in Accident & Emergency and delayed transfers of care. Reducing pressure on hospitals by avoiding unnecessary admissions and delayed discharges has risen up the global policy agenda. However, reviews of strategies and policies have rarely involved discussions about the role that hospital social workers play in achieving timely hospital discharge. Yet discharge planning has become a, if not the, central function of these professionals. This paper presents the results of a small-scale exploratory study of hospital social work in an acute hospital in Northern Ireland. The findings reveal that the work of hospital social workers is characterised by increased bureaucracy, an emphasis on targets and a decrease in the time afforded to forming relationships with older people. Hospital social workers highlight concerns that the emphasis on discharge planning and pressures associated with the austerity agenda limits their capacity to provide other more traditional roles such as advocacy and counselling. It is argued that hospital social work should not be narrowly defined as ‘simply’ co-ordinating discharge plans. The tension that arises between expediting hospital discharge and advocating for older people and their families is also discussed.

The study reassessed the configural and metric structures of the Brazilian version of the Control, Autonomy, Self-realization and Pleasure (CASP-19) quality-of-life scale. Data came from the EpiFloripa Ageing Study, which included 1,131 respondents from Southern Brazil. The original and two recently factorial solutions for the Brazilian CASP-19 were initially examined. Exploratory Factor Analyses and Exploratory Structural Equation Models were estimated in the first half of the sample, selected at random. In the second half, Confirmatory Factor Analyses determined the most tenable configural and metric model for the instrument. Neither the original nor the two Brazilian solutions were supported by our data. Instead, we suggest that two factors underlie CASP-19's configural structure: while the first one groups the control and autonomy dimensions, the second combines self-realization and pleasure. Except for four items, all others presented moderate to strong loadings, and only two showed a theoretically meaningful and sufficiently large residual correlation, which was worthy of inclusion in the final model. Cross-loadings were not detected. When assessed in a population-based sample of older respondents, this Brazilian version of the CASP-19 appeared to have two factors, moderate to strong loadings and a pair of redundant items. Future studies should evaluate the consistency of these findings, examine the scalar structure of the instrument, and assess configural, metric and scalar invariance across social groups.

The health and wellbeing benefits of Men's Sheds to the men who participate have had significant research attention for over a decade. However, there has been little research into the broader impacts of Men's Sheds, particularly in relation to the impacts on significant others in the lives of the men who participate. Our paper aims to redress this lack of research by focusing on the interrelated perceptions and experiences of men and those closest to them in four Men's Sheds in regional Victoria, Australia. The research shows that the partners and carers of ‘shedders’ reported that the men's participation not only benefited the men but also had benefits for their significant others. The study also showed that the partners of shedders in the study found that their individual and joint adjustment to retirement was in some cases assisted by the men enjoying the social and structured environment of the Men's Shed, while in other cases it was seen by partners as an over-commitment and impacting negatively on the marriage. The findings also shed some important light on some tensions experienced by the partners associated with carer burden and adjustments to retirement.

The dual demographic changes in massive rural-to-urban labour migration and population ageing have significantly impacted the lives of older adults, who have either been left behind in rural regions or migrated to urban areas. While many extant studies on migration and wellbeing of older adults have focused on either migrating or left-behind older adults, a very limited number of studies have directly compared these two groups. Utilising data from the China Longitudinal Ageing Social Survey, this study examines the impacts of different migration patterns (i.e. migrating older adults, left-behind older adults and non-migrating older adults) on the social networks and mental health of older adults in rural China. Structural equation modelling results showed that older adults who have been left behind reported weaker family ties and poorer mental health than the other older adults. Moreover, weakened family ties increased older adults’ risk of developing mental health problems. Older migrants reported the lowest level of depressive symptoms among the three groups of older adults. However, migration may be associated with poorer mental health among the older migrants due to the shrinking/weakening of family/friendship ties.

While life expectancy increases in developed countries and there is evidence that demonstrates the potential of the internet to optimise or compensate for the losses associated with ageing, there is a high proportion of older people who continue to be disconnected from the digital world. In this scenario, the technological support offered by public institutions has the potential to be an accessible source for the digital literacy of older people. This study, using the model of digital inequality, had the aim of analysing the ability of these institutional supports to determine and predict the digital inclusion of older people. The sample was retired adults (over 54 years) residing in Spain who are users of technological support services in four organisational contexts: nursing homes, senior community centres, University Programs for Seniors and adult education programmes. Through binary logistic regression analysis, we found that the ability of the availability of literacy support to determine and predict access, autonomy, skills and use of the internet for social connectivity depends on the social and organisational context of the technology support service. These findings support empirically the situated nature of technological support for the digital inclusion of older people and provide a useful comparative vision for the design of accessible support services adapted to the needs of its users.

This study sought to explore qualitatively experiences of existential loneliness (EL) in 80 older people living in retirement communities across the United Kingdom and Australia. Qualitative semi-structured interviews permitted in-depth exploration of issues such as biographical narrative, close relationships, loss, feelings of loneliness and retirement living. It was our intention to conduct a large-scale, deep-listening exercise that would provide further clues about EL in older people and the circumstances that give rise to such feelings. Data provided rich insight into older people's inner lives. Core themes identified loss of close attachments, lack of physical touch and intimacy, deterioration of health and body, and lack of an emotional language through which to express EL as central to older people's experiences. Furthermore, there was a suggestion that the move to retirement living was for many people inextricably connected to their experience of EL. Our data further support and extend the notion that EL can be thought of as a gradual sense of separation from the world and that ageing intensifies a myriad of social, emotional and physical circumstances that prompt its emergence. This sense of existential isolation need not be thought of as exclusive to those experiencing extreme frailty or who face death imminently – our data pointed to a clear and gradual emergence of EL throughout later life.

Person-centred care (PCC) in residential care facilities (RCFs) is valuable but creates challenges for care professionals balancing involvement and a partnership approach for residents while considering the health and safety outcomes of all residents. This review evaluates what is known about the substance use and misuse of residents living in RCFs and what is important to study in future research to enhance PCC, especially in cases in which residents wish to choose unhealthy behaviours. A scoping review was conducted and exclusion criteria were set. The included papers were assessed on methodological quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and the results were qualitatively analysed. The included papers consisted of studies regarding alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. The results showed that care professionals are involved in facilitating and regulating alcohol and tobacco. The focus of the included papers is on alcohol and tobacco. Five of the 16 papers assessed the residents’ perspective. This review highlights the importance of incorporating the perspectives of residents, care professionals and the organisation to enhance PCC and enable residents to make shared and well-informed decisions in dialogue with care professionals. Future research should also assess the distinction between substance use and misuse, and how this affects implementing PCC in RCFs.