Patterns of social engagement in the transition to later life
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were from the epidemiologically sampled longitudinal prospective Women’s Healthy Ageing Project (WHAP) which was initiated as the Melbourne Women’s Midlife Health Project. Briefly, a longitudinal cohort of Caucasian women within the Melbourne metropolitan area were identified by random telephone dialling in 1991 and re-interviewed annually over eight years then intermittently over five years. Details of the study protocol are outlined elsewhere [16].
Measures and procedure
Assessments were conducted
Results
The sample for the current study included 493 women who were interviewed at least once between 1992 and 2004. Sample sizes and age ranges for each timepoint are shown in Table 2.
Marriage rates remained high and relatively stable across the study years, with a 5% decrease between 1992 and 2004 (Fig. 2). Similarly, the proportion of participants living with a partner remained high. The proportion living alone increased slightly from 1993 onwards, coinciding with the increase in sample divorce
Discussion
This longitudinal prospective research catalogues the changes in fundamental social roles in Australian women during the midlife to later life transition. The length of this study, with multiple assessments spanning over 12 years, enable a detailed inspection of the major changes occurring during this period and provide insight into the social identities of women as they age.
One of the most prominent changes occurring during this period was to household composition. The proportion of
Conclusion
The results of this study provide context for social engagement as individuals progress into later life. Change in employment status is clearly a key event in ageing. The decline in full-time work and dramatic rise in the number of non-workers presents an opportunity for exploring new social roles. While there was a slight increase in volunteerism and casual or occasional work that coincided with decreasing employment rates, there was still a large proportion of the sample that was not
Contributors
KB is the primary author of the paper. KB formulated the study design and wrote the paper.
LD established the initial study design and oversaw the project.
CB assisted with the structure of the study, and contributed to the writing and editing of the paper.
CS contributed to the study concept, and the writing and editing of the paper.
Conflict of interest
CS has provided clinical consultancy and been on scientific advisory committees for the Australian CSIRO, Alzheimer's Australia, University of Melbourne and other relationships which are subject to confidentiality clauses. She has been a named Chief Investigator on investigator driven collaborative research projects in partnership with Pfizer, Merck, Piramal, Bayer and GE. Her research program has received support from NHMRC, Alzheimer's Association, Collier Trust, Scobie and Claire McKinnon
Funding
This research is funded by Alzheimer’s Australia, Australian Menopausal Society, Brain Foundation, Alzheimer’s Association, Shepherd Foundation, the Scobie and Claire McKinnon Foundation, the Collier Trust Fund, the Ramaciotti Foundation, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, the J.O. & J.R. Wicking Trust, Piramal Life Sciences, Mason Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Ethical approval
The current study received approval from the University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Council (HREC 931149). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to assessment at each timepoint. All data was de-identified.
Provenance and peer review
This article has undergone peer review.
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