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The reablement approach is becoming a popular social and health-care model in many Western countries, providing support strategies for older people experiencing impairment. Reablement programmes have been criticised for a lack of theories, explicating the understanding of the problem that it is intended to address,i.e. ageing and impairment in old age. We need to discuss the inherent theories in intervention programmes to question taken-for-granted assumptions about not only what works, but also how these assumptions affect the sociocultural models of ageing. Theories on successful ageing have been suggested as underpinning reablement. This article aims to present and discuss theories of successful ageing compared to key principles, components and outcomes in reablement. A medical and epidemiological, a psychological and a sociocultural theoretical approach to successful ageing are included. Contemporary reablement programmes mirror medical and psychological theories of successful ageing, including models of ageing that are associated with continuity, optimisation, selection, individuality and goal orientation. Most reablement programmes do not address sociocultural perspectives on ageing. As older people experience impairment in a pertinent liminality within and between the sociocultural values of the third and fourth age, it is important for reablement programmes and practice to consider the theoretical assumptions and underpinning theories of ageing and how to help older people balance between optimising capacity and accepting losses in their everyday life.

Older adults 75 and above are a fast-growing segment of the population. However, few studies have investigated what it means to age successfully from their perspective. This group of older adults face challenges that might characteristically differ from younger older adults. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the perspectives of older adults aged 75 and above regarding what it means to age successfully and to summarise the findings through a narrative synthesis. We also aimed to provide a snapshot of inhibitors and facilitators to achieve successful ageing. A systematic review of the 75+ older adults’ perspectives was conducted across PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science and PsycINFO. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods original peer-reviewed studies were included. After reviewing 4,661 articles, 15 articles met the inclusion criteria and 15 themes were identified. They ranged from biomedical components such as physical functioning to psychosocial components such as relationships, reflections on life and past experiences, preparations for death and environmental factors. The findings revealed that as people age, their definition of successful ageing changes, expanding the current conceptualisation of successful ageing by including additional factors that can act as facilitators and/or inhibitors, such as death and environmental factors. The findings also highlight the need for further research on theory development by considering age-related differences and the perspectives of under-studied populations.

The article extends notions of ‘active’ and ‘successful’ ageing by exploring the narratives of ageing in the retirement migration of Canadian and American older adults in Cuenca, Ecuador. The article is based on 83 semi-structured qualitative interviews (11 of which are follow-up interviews), most conducted in the first half of the 2010s. I explore how notions of finite time and imaginaries of a fourth age of decline and death inform the migration decisions and imaginaries of Canadian and American retirement migrants. I argue that their desire to seek self-expansive, new experiences through migration and contact with cultural difference dialogues with an increasingly competitive neoliberal culture of ageing, that emphasises success through activity, youthfulness and consumption. While there are certainly other ideals that help inform North American migration to Ecuador, I argue that these particular ideals illustrate how discourses of ‘active ageing’ have been taken up ‘from below’, by ageing North American adults, many of whom identify with the aspirations of policy and corporate discourses of activity and success, but who find themselves ageing into material conditions that preclude them. Migration to a lower-cost country, like Ecuador, helps them to experience these aspirations more positively, but may have uneven effects on lower-income workers and their ability to remain in place in the communities marketed for this type of migration.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the differences between the consumption of plant-based v. animal-based protein-rich diets on successful ageing, as well as to identify the optimal combination of dietary protein intake for facilitating successful ageing in people aged >50 years. Design: A combined analysis was conducted in older adults of the ATTICA and MEDIS population-based cross-sectional studies. Anthropometrical, clinical and sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle parameters, dietary habits and level of protein intake were derived through standard procedures. Successful ageing was evaluated using the validated Successful Aging Index (SAI) composed of ten health-related social, lifestyle and clinical characteristics. Setting: Athens area and twenty Greek islands. Participants: A total of 3349 Greek women and men over 50 years old. Results: Participants with high consumption of plant proteins were more likely to be male, physically active, with higher daily energy intake, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet and higher level of SAI (P < 0·001). Participants with ‘Low animal & High plant’ and ‘High animal & High plant’ protein consumption had a 6 and 7 % higher SAI score, respectively, compared with the other participants (P < 0·001). In contrast, ‘Low animal & Low plant’ and ‘High animal & Low plant’ protein intake was negatively associated with SAI as compared to the combination of all other consumption categories (P < 0·02). Conclusions: The consumption of a plant-based protein-rich diet seems to be a beneficial nutritional choice that should be promoted and encouraged to older people since it may benefit both individual’s health and prolong successful ageing.

Whether encouraging successful ageing or labelling one as a stereotypical senior citizen, messages surrounding ageing pervade the daily lives of older adults. However, as a social status, age remains primarily in the background of older adults’ conversations, only being drawn into the focus when one is identified as older. This paper draws on interviews with members and staff of an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) in the southeastern United States of America in order to examine the ways that they discuss age and ageing. These older adults’ ageing talk often focused on navigating away from negative ideas about age and avoiding labels deemed pejorative. Humour was occasionally used in identifying age, which carried potential for reinforcing as well as subverting ageism. Yet, members highlighted positive value in being older, particularly as demonstrated through participation in age-segregated education. Overall, these findings reflect the conflicting influences of deeply embedded ageist beliefs and personal desires to age successfully among this group of white, upper-middle-class, educated older adults. Ultimately, OLLI served as a protective environment for these privileged individuals, shielding the self from stereotypes otherwise present in ageing talk.

We describe the findings of a qualitative longitudinal interview study of a group of initially community-dwelling frail older people, and their informal and formal carers. We used a narrative approach to explore the role that narrative may have for people living with frailty. This has been less explored comparative to the experiences of those living with chronic illness. The frail older people told stories of their experiences that revealed three distinct shapes or typologies. These were eitherstable,unbalancingoroverwhelmed, and related to how the person managed to adapt to increasing challenges and losses, and to reintegrate their sense of self into a cohesive narrative. Each is illustrated by an individual case story. Frailty is described as both biographically anticipated yet potentially biographically disruptive as older people may struggle to make sense of their circumstances without a clear single causative factor. Findings are discussed in relation to biographical disruption and reconstruction in chronic illness and the rhetoric around ‘successful ageing’. We conclude by drawing attention to the complex individual and social factors that contribute to the experience of living with frailty in later life.

One of the major aspects of successful ageing is active engagement in later life. Retirement and widowhood are two significant life transitions that may largely influence leisure engagement patterns among older adults. Limited findings exist regarding the impact of life transitions on leisure activity engagement due to the scarcity of longitudinal data with repeated measurement of older individuals’ leisure engagement. This study longitudinally examined changes in leisure activity engagement as influenced by retirement and widowhood using five waves of national panel data from the Health and Retirement Study and its supplementary Consumption and Activities Mail Survey. Multi-level modelling was conducted with retirement and widowhood status as time-varying variables. Socio-economic status, depressive symptoms, cognitive function, self-rated health and functional limitations were also included as time-varying and time-invariant covariates. Findings show that engagement in mental, physical, social and household activities significantly decreased during an eight-year period. Moreover, transition from working to retired status was associated with increased engagement in mental, social and household activities but decreased engagement in physical activities among men only. Transition from married to widowhood status was associated with decreased engagement in household activities among women only. Encouraging active leisure engagement among individuals who experience either or both life transitions may help maintain their health after transition.

Life satisfaction is an important indicator of wellbeing and successful ageing, while boosting life satisfaction in later life has long been a policy and service challenge. Based on a questionnaire survey with 415 Chinese older adults aged 60 years and over in Hong Kong, this study examined how older adults' travel motivations influenced their travel actions and how the travel affected their life satisfaction using structural equation modelling. A proposed ‘travel motivation–action–life satisfaction’ model showed an acceptable fit with the data. It was found that travel motivations stimulated older adults' travel actions, while their travels further contributed to greater life satisfaction. The findings of this study indicated the need for improved knowledge and understanding of older adults' travel preferences and requirements, and highlight the importance of enhancing awareness among professionals and service providers about the benefit of travelling in enhancing life satisfaction of older adults.

The inescapable presence of ageing is a subject that many of us may shy away from, perhaps in a bid to prolong youth, a wistful idea that confronts us visually in much of our media avenues today. Yet at some point we are likely to be faced with the fact that age is not a fad or fashion that will fade away. It is with this in mind that Pachana in her short introduction to ageing, endeavours to tackle the meanings and perceptions of ageing, along with the individual, cultural and societal implications of our assertions. In six concise chapters, Pachana takes her reader on a whirlwind tour of the history of ageing; the biological, psychological and interpersonal aspects of ageing; successful ageing and some well-considered reflections on where the nature of ageing will take us.

This study investigated the perceived value of informal and formal supports for older adults with multi-morbidity from the perspectives of patients, care-givers and family physicians. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 patients, their informal care-givers and their family physicians in an urban academic family health team in Ontario. Analysis was conducted using a General Inductive Approach to facilitate identification of main themes and build a framework of perceived value of supports. Participant views converged on supports that facilitate patient independence and ease care-giver burden. However, important differences in participant perceptions arose regarding these priorities. Physicians and care-givers valued supports that facilitate health and safety while patients prioritised supports that enable self-efficacy and independence. While formal supports which eased care-giver burden were viewed positively by all members of the triad, many patients also rejected formal supports, citing that informal support from their care-giver was available. Such conflicts between patient, care-giver and physician-perceived value of supports may have important implications for consumer and care-giver willingness to accept formal supports when supports are available. These findings contribute to the broader literature on community-based care by incorporating the perspectives of patients, informal care-givers and family physicians to understand better the barriers and facilitators of uptake of supportive services that contribute to successful ageing at home.

Singapore has an age-based mandatory retirement policy for taxi drivers. In 2006, the upper age limit of mandatory retirement was raised from 70 to 73 years for healthy, older taxi drivers. Retirement from taxi driving in Singapore often results in simultaneous retirement from work and forced driving cessation due to limited private vehicle ownership. While both retirement from work and driving cessation have been found to have negative implications for health and wellbeing in Western countries, little is known about the effects of mandatory retirement and driving cessation for healthy professional drivers in an Asian context. This study aimed to explore the mandatory retirement experience of older Singaporean taxi drivers, aged 70–73 years. In-depth interviews were conducted within a descriptive phenomenological approach with 23 older Singaporean taxi drivers who were retired or retiring drivers. Findings showed the experience to be dominated by retirement from work issues rather than by driving cessation. Three themes described the experiences: ‘stories of taxi driving’, ‘feeling lost in retirement’ and ‘contradictions of growing old in Singapore’. Taxi driving was a valued role. Despite an expected retirement, most participants were not prepared for the retirement transition. They struggled with emotional adjustment, financial vulnerability, identity, reduction in life-space and meaningful activity participation. Participants felt under-valued despite having personal achievements and support from family and ‘successful ageing’ policies. Work remained a preferred activity despite limited re-employment opportunities. The unique context of expected but forced retirement, financial need in a non-welfare system, high cultural value on work, and limited options for productive or meaningful activities and roles, predisposed this sub-group of older Singaporean men to be vulnerable retirees in terms of identity and wellbeing issues. Support for a stressful late-life transition is indicated for continued health and wellbeing.

LGBTQ ageing is an under-researched but vital issue, given the cultural invisibility of older LGBTQ individuals and Italy's ageing population. This article explores initiatives around LGBTQ ageing, considered in relation to the hypothesis that LGBTQ populations may develop effective strategies for ‘successful ageing’, by establishing queer cultural spaces and support networks. After a brief contextualisation of key issues the author focuses on a case study of a lesbian community in Bari which is planning a residential arrangement for ‘older lesbians’. Drawing on interviews conducted in January 2011, the coping strategies or forms of ‘resilience’ developed by this community are identified and analysed. It is argued that while plans for a residential facility remain unrealised, this community demonstrates a degree of ‘resilience across the life course’, through reciprocal support, and socio-cultural and political innovation. However, interviews also reveal the difficulties of progressing from an ‘imagined community’ to its concrete realisation.

In this study, we examined the relationship between emotional labour and successful ageing among older Hong Kong Chinese workers. We also investigated whether job satisfaction mediated the association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. Results show that deep acting was positively related to successful ageing in the workplace, whereas surface acting was negatively related to the same. Structural equation modelling shows that job satisfaction partially mediated the association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. The limitations of the study and further recommendations are also discussed.

This article explores how outdoor adventure activities in a New Zealand community-based programme are experienced and understood as successful ageing strategies. Outdoor adventures are seen as positive leisure experiences that include challenging physical activity, social engagement and the natural environment. Using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design, a combination of seven interviews and a survey (N=80) were conducted with a Third Age adventures group. The research outcomes confirmed the attraction of adventure for this cohort. Risk engagement and uncertainty were perceived as less important in favour of emotional, social and environmental engagement through fun, excitement and pleasure. The natural environment was considered integral and defining of the experience with the participants demonstrating a strong environmental ethos. Opportunities for building social capital were plentiful and well illustrated. The benefits of engagement for health, wellbeing and successful ageing are identified through the physical, social and psychological domains. The research supports adventure participation as a successful ageing strategy that is relatively low cost, community based, has many preventative health benefits, builds communities and embraces the environment.

This article examines how older adults experience the physical and social realities of having multiple chronic conditions in later life. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with 16 men and 19 women aged 73+ who had between three and 14 chronic conditions, we address the following research questions: (a) What is it like to have multiple chronic conditions in later life? (b) How do older men and women ‘learn to live’ with the physical and social realities of multiple morbidities? (c) How are older adults’ experiences of illness influenced by age and gender norms? Our participants experienced their physical symptoms and the concomitant limitations to their activities to be a source of personal disruption. However, they normalised their illnesses and made social comparisons in order to achieve a sense of biographical flow in distinctly gendered ways. Forthright in their frustration over their loss of autonomy and physicality but resigned and stoic, the men's stories reflected masculine norms of control, invulnerability, physical prowess, self-reliance and toughness. The women were dismayed by their bodies’ altered appearances and concerned about how their illnesses might affect their significant others, thereby responding to feminine norms of selflessness, sensitivity to others and nurturance. We discuss the findings in relation to the competing concepts of biographical disruption and biographical flow, as well as successful ageing discourses.

This article aims to examine patterns of innovation in older adults' tourism, and to explore whether innovation is associated with the benefits gained from the overall tourism experience. The study was based on a national mail survey of 298 retirees, who travelled abroad at least once in the year prior to the survey. Results indicated that participants' involvement in new experiences during their last travel abroad was quite high. Factor analysis of new experiences data identified two factors: ‘external innovation’, which included experiences that were associated with the external environment visited; and ‘internal innovation’, which consisted of experiences that were associated with some intrapersonal processes. Cluster analysis conducted on the new experiences' factors identified three groups of older tourists:non-innovators, external innovatorsandabsolute innovators. These groups were differentiated in terms of travel patterns and destination activities. In addition, theabsolute innovatorsreported a significantly higher level of agreement with various benefits statements than the other groups. Examining the findings through the lenses of the Innovation Theory of Successful Ageing helps to explain older adults' tourism experiences. Moreover, since the findings imply that experiencing ‘internal innovation’, rather than ‘external innovation’, amplified their overall tourism experience, this article suggests a new principle to the theory, which should be tested in future research.

An engaged lifestyle is seen as an important component of successful ageing. Many older adults with high participation in social and leisure activities report positive wellbeing, a fact that fuelled the original activity theory and that continues to influence researchers, theorists and practitioners. This study's purpose is to review the conceptualisation and measurement of activity among older adults and the associations reported in the gerontological literature between specific dimensions of activity and wellbeing. We searched published studies that focused on social and leisure activity and wellbeing, and found 42 studies in 44 articles published between 1995 and 2009. They reported from one to 13 activity domains, the majority reporting two or three, such as informal, formal and solitary, or productive versus leisure. Domains associated with subjective wellbeing, health or survival included social, leisure, productive, physical, intellectual, service and solitary activities. Informal social activity has accumulated the most evidence of an influence on wellbeing. Individual descriptors such as gender or physical functioning sometimes moderate these associations, while contextual variables such as choice, meaning or perceived quality play intervening roles. Differences in definitions and measurement make it difficult to draw inferences about this body of evidence on the associations between activity and wellbeing. Activity theory serves as shorthand for these associations, but gerontology must better integrate developmental and psychological constructs into a refined, comprehensive activity theory.

The aim of this study is to specify the concept of ‘healthy ageing’ from both western and non-western cultural perspectives, and to compare the views of academics and lay older people. Thirty-four published peer-reviewed full papers in English and Chinese (traditional characters) were identified using electronic database searches. The key components of their definitions of healthy ageing were extracted and categorised into 12 domains. The results show that, in general, lay definitions (as described in 11 studies) included more domains (independency, family, adaptation, financial security, personal growth, and spirituality) and more diversity in the healthy ageing concept than academic views (which tend to focus more on physical and mental health and social functioning in later life). Certain domains were valued differently across cultures. As shown in previous studies, the findings affirm that healthy ageing is a multi-dimensional and complex concept and that there are substantial differences in different cultures. Moreover, we found that there are pronounced variations in the conceptualisation of healthy ageing as between academic and older lay people. Generally, older lay people perceive healthy ageing more broadly than the maintenance of physical, mental and social functioning. We suggest that academic researchers should integrate the more holistic perspectives of older lay people and cultural diversity into the classical ‘physical–mental–social’ healthy ageing concept.

A review of several studies examining the lay concept of successful ageing and related concepts leads to the conclusion that elders from different cultures appear to agree on most of the components identified in the literature. From the research emerges a multidimensional conceptualisation of ‘successful ageing’ that is described on the basis of physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains, and which coincides with most theoretical and empirical definitions. The main goal of the present research is to study similarities and differences between concepts of ‘successful ageing’ in several Latin American and European countries and in two different age groups, and also to examine whether a similar structure of the lay concept can be found across both continents. The results show minor differences at item levels among countries, continents and age groups, and a similar internal structure across them.

The aim of this study was to investigate ‘successful ageing’ among low income elderly people in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). A sample of men and women aged 65 or more years who received welfare benefits and social welfare services from senior welfare centres and who had good cognition were identified and recruited by the staff of eight such centres in Seoul, the capital city of the country. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a structured questionnaire using measures and instruments that were selected following a literature review and previous studies of low-income older people. The survey instrument was pre-tested with seven subjects to ensure the comprehensibility of the items, and 220 main interviews were conducted in the respondents' homes and at senior welfare centres during October and November 2006. Factor analysis identified three factors in successful ageing: ‘a positive attitude towards life’, ‘success of adult children’, and ‘relationships with others’. Men reported higher scores on successful ageing than women. It was concluded that the concept of ‘successful ageing’ does apply to low-income elderly people in Korean, although its components have little to do with material or social success as conceived by previous studies of the general elderly population in either western or Asian countries.

This paper elucidates and champions a spatiality perspective in social gerontology, by arguing that relationships between older people and the spaces and places they inhabit illuminate deeply-ingrained societal attitudes and values. The trilogy of society, image and place is explored through an interpretive reading of images and scripts in ‘successful ageing’ and ‘anti-ageing’ created and promoted by the booming ‘retirement industry’ in the United States. Six tropes are revealed in an interpretation of prevalent images of ‘Sunbelt Retirement Land’: geographic cornucopia, ageless selves, near perfection, the right stuff, down home living, and nomads of desire. This reading serves as a springboard in elaborating Cole's (1992) notion of bipolar ageism, as we vacillate between negative stereotypes of old age and positive elixirs, such as anti-ageing and agelessness, that are cloaked denials of decline, disease and death. The paper concludes with a series of troubling questions about the perpetuation and depth of ageism in society and culture.Every present day is determined by the images that are synchronic with it: each ‘now’ is the now of a particular recognizability. (Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, 1999: 462–63)

An individual's personal sense of well-being (SWB) is an indicator of psychological adjustment and successful ageing. Health and functional capacity are viewed as important sources of life quality in old age but very little is known about their effects on SWB over time. Can older individuals maintain SWB despite declining health? Longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study, a locally representative sample of men and women aged 70 to 100+, indicate that cumulative health-related chronic life strains that characterize the Fourth Age set a constraint on the potential of the older individual to experience the positive side of life.

Gerontological inquiries into understandings of successful ageing have been culture-specific. This means that they have only been studied in the specific cultural settings that have given them their meaning. Understandings of successful ageing that are simultaneously influenced by two cultures have yet to be studied. This study is based on a newly-designed culturally-relevant theoretical framework for the study of successful ageing, and focuses on the context of migration where culture of origin and host culture meet. Interviews based on vignettes have been conducted with 30 Iranian immigrants in Sweden in order to reveal if, and how, the pre- and post-migration understandings of successful ageing differ. The findings show that cultural contexts determine how the construct in question is understood and that migration between different cultures can challenge these understandings.

I wrote a newspaper article describing a branch of the University of the Third Age (U3A). It was given the sub-title ‘It keeps us young’ by the editor without my knowledge or consent. I objected on the grounds that it gave a totally misleading impression of the nature and purpose of the U3A, one which may lead people to suppose that members were striving to be ‘young’. This experience raised the question of the language used to describe those in the Third Age, a controversy in which a number of contemporary gerontologists are involved. It is suggested that some writers are reinforcing the concept of ‘the Ghost in the Machine’ that is commonly held by many lay people, and this leads to confusion about self-identity among those in later life. It is argued that elderly people will be able to map out strategies for successful ageing only if they come to terms with accepting themselves as being old. Longstanding ageist prejudice has tended to create a negative aura surrounding words such as ‘elderly’ and such words need to be rehabilitated.

In recent years, many researchers in the study of ageing have adopted a terminology of ‘agelessness’. They argue that old age is nothing more than a social construct and that until it is eliminated as a conceptual category, ageism will continue to flourish. This article challenges this view, stating that the current tendency towards ‘agelessness’ is itself a form of ageism, depriving the old of one of their most hard-earned resources: their age. Specific theories of ageing (successful ageing, mask of ageing, continuity theory) are assessed in this light, and original data are presented as evidence of old age as a unique phase of the lifecycle replete with continued developmental possibilities.

This paper investigates the modalities of the government of old people in contemporary society by looking critically at current social gerontological discourse and the claims to truth it makes about the experience of growing and being old, and its impact on the cultural economy of old age. Recent theoretical developments in sociology have problematised dominant cultural, social and academic constructions of ageing and the ways in which old people make sense of their ageing selves against these normalising processes. The impact of structural processes on the experience of old age has been highlighted, dominant discursive practices in relation, for instance, to the care of old people have been deconstructed and spaces of resistance have been identified. At the same time, social gerontology has turned its attention to positive or successful ageing and its payback for individual old people and policy-makers. However, because it is embedded in a broader discourse which gives primacy to lifestyles, social and economic opportunities and moral responsibility, successful ageing is an ambiguous project caught between resisting the mask of ageing and reaffirming the continued cultural repression of the declining body and, by extension, of the ageing self. Recent findings from an on-going life history project involving old people who have moved to ‘age-appropriate’ housing will be used to illustrate the extent to which people who are now old have appropriated new forms of regulation.

In spite of the many studies conducted over the past decades, the field of inquiry known as cross-cultural gerontology remains atheoretical. This is because of its shortcomings in generating culturally-relevant theoretical frameworks of its own. In this article, I address this failure and adapt Kluckhohn's model of value orientations for use in the study of ageing-related concepts. I discuss possible applications of the adapted model and, in particular, its application to one of the most frequently debated concepts in gerontology, successful ageing. In the light of this discussion, I conclude that the culturally-relevant theoretical framework hereby proposed could lead to the rectification of the current atheoretical predicament of cross-cultural gerontology.

This article focuses on Australian men living in the Northern Territory, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. They are identified as the sector least able to access the indicators of successful ageing, and a sector in urgent need of community inclusive policies, programs, and social support. Four important concepts have been identified in developing this paper; namely the indicators of successful ageing, the use of the term ‘age range’ (as a means of examining needs more specifically), life cycle comparisons (between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians), and the limitations of generic Federal policies. These concepts are linked with Social Context Theory, to identify a major community development challenge.

Data on a nationally representative sample of ever-married white American women born in 1900–1910 show living arrangements to be closely associated with the quality of the ageing experience (with, that is, whether these women were ageing ‘successfully’). The proportions ageing ‘successfully’ were highest among those living only with their husbands, and lowest among those living with kin other than their husbands. In between, but much closer in position to the women living only with their husbands, were those who were living alone. The paper looks at explanations accounting for these differences and considers some of the policy implications of these findings.

Education may have an important role to play in helping to enhance older people's quality of life. The University of the Third Age (U3A) has operated successfully in many countries for nearly two decades, yet few studies have described the characteristics of those who are attracted to the movement, or the benefits to the individual and, possibly, to wider society of the U3A approach to education. This study discusses major findings from 770 responses to a postal survey involving members from twelve independent U3A campuses in three Australian States, and compares these findings with data reported for older learners in other countries. Some implications for Australian U3As undertaking research activities which have the potential to benefit the wider ageing community are raised.

Profiles of customary physical activity (CPA) and psychological wellbeing were obtained from a random community sample of 1,042 individuals aged 65 years and over. Activities were assessed with regard to their estimated minimum energy cost and/or their assumed contribution to functional capacity. The structure of CPA, and associations between activity levels, morale and mental health were then investigated. Women and men showed clear differences in the organisation of their activity patterns, and these differences were reflected in activity–affect relationships. For men, factor scores derived from the first principal component of CPA emerged as significant, though modest, predictors of well-being in regression and discriminant analyses. For women, however, activity factor scores failed significantly to predict levels of morale or mental health when medical and demographic factors were controlled. The results indicate that, among the present cohort of retired and elderly people, relationships between customary physical activity levels and psychological well-being are weak, indirect and gender-specific.