LIFESTYLE IMPLICATIONS OF AUSTRALIAN RETIREMENT PATTERNS

LIFESTYLE IMPLICATIONS OF AUSTRALIAN RETIREMENT PATTERNS

John McCallum

Abstract The completion of the demographic transition in

Australia with consequent population ageing will br- ing social and economic conseqiiences of an expected and an unexpected kind. Economic costs are much debated but the lifestyle implications are less clear and less discussed. Three points are discussed in this paper. Firstly on the basis of Australian surveys, i t is established that a relatively active and independent retirement is an accepted life phase for Australianq. This development is characteristically Australian and not a necessary consequence of demographic changes. Secondly international evidence is presented to show the influence of culture on lifestyle and the health implications of different lifestyles. I t is the culture within which one ages which is important in determining lifestyle and health in late life. I n economic class subcultures what happens during one’s life may be more important than what happens in late life in determin- in8 health and well-being. Finally, information or educational strategy is proposed for harnessing the un- directed changes from demographic transition. The problem lies in deciding what areas of lifestyle throughout life we are prepared to change lo produce more desirable states in late life.

Introduction The demographic transition in Australia, involving

declines in both birth and mortality rates, is now complete (Ruzicka and Caldwell, 1977). As in all other developed nations, Australians are now faced with the consequences of the changes in age structure of the population. Whilst there has been considerable discussion of the public cost of the transition in the areas of income support and health and related services, there have been more tentative observations about the lifestyle implications of these demographic changes. In discussing these social implications of the transition we are handicapped by what might be called “cultural lags” - a tendency to base social expectations on past population patterns particularly in assuming that children’s needs are primary or that work - family rearing activities are the norm (McCallum 1984A). This paper will begin to tease out some of the implications for Australian lifestyle of. the recent demographic transition.

Lifestyle is one of those useful but poorly defined words. We can apply it to behaviour, attitudes, motivations or meanings of life. Most generally it applies to patterns of interaction between persons, en-

* This paper was originally presented at the symposium “Critical lrsues in the Care of the Elderly” Adelaide, 27 July, 1985, organised by the Sth Australian Postgraduate Medical Education Association Inc.

vironments and social cultures. Three threads from this complex area will be taken up in this paper. Firstly evidmce will be presented that retirement, in the sense of complete withdrawal from work, has become an accepted phase in :he life careers of Australians. Second- ly evidence will be presented that specific options within lifestyles are significant factors in health and well being. Consequently choices within lifestyles are important to survival and to --,itality in late life. The emphasis in thk thematic discussion will be upon options in social living rather than upon diet and activity which are discussed extensively elsewhere. Finally the paper will advocate the options for changing lifestyles through education and health promotion.

The Retirement Lifestyle Retirement is complex and can be measured in

multiple ways (McCallum 1985A): people’s self definitions e.g. “ I am retired”, a cut-off point below which hours afid weeks work- ed are counted as retired. and the criterion of age pension or superannuation receipt as the indicator of retirement.

Becanse in Australia most people stop paid work com- pletely between the ages of 60 and 65 years and some 80 per cent receive the age pension, there is an unusual consistency in these three measures. Australians define themselves as retired when they finish paid work and receive the age pension. Retirement is not nearly so simple in countries like Japan where paid work in old age is normal. However the changes in retirement behaviour i n Australia during the last decade have been dramatic.

To set the scene for discussion of the specific changes, the implications of the broader pattern of demographic change need first to be noted. Whereas in 1911, three years after the Commonwealth of Australia introduced the age pension, only about 50 per cent (47.4 per cent of males, and 52.6 per cent of females) of the population survived to age 60 years, in 1980 some 71 per cent of males and 81 per cent of females survived to age 60. It is projected that in 2010 some 85 per cent of males and 93 per cent of females will survive to age 60 years, an increase of some 40 percentage points since the introduction of the age pension (Rowland 1984:74). Whereas in 191 I there was an each way chance that Australians would be dead before retirement, for those born in 1950 who will be 60 in the year 2010, there will be about a ninety per cent chance of survival to age 60. Furthermore in establishing the age pension in 1908 the concern was with a minority of needy survivors whereas in the future this entitlement will be received by a majority of survivors. Both individual and collective thinking about the future need to take account of the demographic transition.

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At the same time as chances for survival have been improving, Australians in general, and Australian men in particular, have been leaving work at ever younger ages. Between 1974 and 1981 the percentage point decline in workforce participation of Australian males aged 55 to 64 years was 15 per cent compared to 2 per cent in Japan and 6 per cent in the United States. The most rapid declines in workforce participation have been for males aged 60 to 64 years but declines have occurred at younger ages 55 to 59 years and at older ages 65 years and above (Bureau of Labour Market Research, 1983). In 1947 about one-third of .4ustralian men aged 65 years or more were still in the !abour force but by 1984 only about one-tenth were still in the labour force. The age pension eligibility age, namely 65 years, has become an upper limit of the normal work career. We should also mention an opposite trend for younger women of increasing labour force participation. Between 1971 and 1983 the percentage of females in the workforce increased from 32 to 37 per cent despite being relatively stable at older ages. Women will be more likely to be workers at retirement ages in the future and may feel early retirement relative to men is not relevant to their changed life careers.

The question arises, then, whether the decline in inale labour force participation has been a positive rather than a negative social change. Initially economists debated whether or not retirement had been voluntary. The notion of “voluntariness” is vague both in abstract definition and in the minds of retirees. So a more productive line of enquiry was to identify the causes of earlier retirement amongst males. Three factors have been identified: ( I ) relative improvements in wealth of post World

War I1 workers and consequently increased preference for late life leisure;

(2) improvements in coverage and rates of government benefits; and

(3) discouraged worker effects dating from the recession beginning in 1974.

The consensus explanation (Hughes, 1983) is that a long term trend towards earlier retirement, derived from increased ability to afford late life leisure, was accelerated in the 1970s by the recession and irn- provements in Government pensions.

The second aspect of this question is, given that the retirement decision has been largely a positive choice, whether the experience of retirement has been satisfac- tory. Most older people have had no difficulty either with their own or their spouses retirement and morale continues at high levels through the pre- and post- retirement phases (McCallum 1985A). There has been an increased preference for late life leisure among older Australian males and they are accommodating to late life without work with some ease. Despite this fact, some 40 per cent of older Australians express a preference for a later retirement than their actual retirement age. This may be because they wish to d o part-time or full-time work or because their working

careers were prematurely interrupted by ill health. So, despite a general acceptance of retirement, there is a demand for new opportunities from older Australians.

The acceptance of late life without work is by no means a necessary consequence of demographic transi- tions and economic development. In the post war era Japan has undergone both rapid demographic transition and high economic growth. Despite a retirement age of 55 years on average about 1 in 4 of all Japanese over 65 years are in the labour force. There is also a persistently strong desire to work and diligent job search amongst older Japanese. Their preference is for paid work but they also wish to work at home and in volunteer centres - Silver Human Resources Centres (see McCallum 19858). If we were to accuse the Japanese of a preoccupation with work it cannot be said to be an unhealthy one. Their life expectancy is the best in the world. Alternatively we could unfairly suggest that Australians are unnecessarily negative about work. Rather the conclusion that should be reached is that Australian culture and economic condi- tions have created a retirement lifestyle that is quite specific to this country. It is not at all a necessary consequence of demographic transition. In fact, increased longevity should imply the opposite trend - that people would work longer.

There is a corollary to the appearance of a retirement lifestyle in Australia. As the preference for late life work amongst Australians suggests, they are decreasingly ratisfied with the prospects of minimal resources and options in later life. This applies to hobbies and interests as well as to work. About 20 per cent of a Melbourne and Adelaide sample of persons over 65 years of age wanted to take up activities but were unable to for a variety of reasons. This frustration is highest among the 60 to 64 age group some 30 per cent of whom could not d o hobbies that they wanted to do. Moreover a retirement income system, the age pension, which is oriented towards providing a minimum standard of living is already causing discontent amongst our elderly. I f retirement is to be a healthy and active life phase many more opportunities will need to be created in retirement. Three general areas which will expand retirement opportunities are:

improvement in retirement income, greater opportunity for late life work, and increased access to leisure.

We can expect to see more agitation for these improvements in the future. Only if improvements are made will these justified complaints be silenced.

Lifestyle and Health The life phase in retirement is not a short, down-hill

run to death and the numbers of Australians experien- cing retirement are a t the highest ever levels both in relative and absolute terms. Men aged 60 years in 198 1 could expect on average another 18 years of life and women another 25 years of life. Men who were aged 80 years in 1981 could expect to live another 7 years and women another 9 years. (Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, 1985). With an overall projected

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average life expectancy of 76 years for males and 89 workaholism and hostility, there is little hypertension ycars for females we can see that the retirement life Or coronary heart disease (Henry, 1983). Cultures are phase is becoming a longer period in one’s life. It is important determinants of lifestyles which have very obviously too long to be treated as a passive wait for real health implications. Importantly group culture death and, moreover, there is evidence of the protec- and stable social support have a protective function in tive function of optimism and the risk of developing a lifestyles. lethal “giving-up given-up” compIex. Generally the Within broader cultures which affect heatth and late evidence points to the importance of hardiness, op- life vitality, many subcultures operate. The most timism and the perception of controlling one’s life as discussed are those related to socio-economic status important factors in lifestyle in later life (Birren and groupings where we have evidence that life chances Livingston, 1985). However more specific aspects of vary considerably between upper and lower groups. retirement life have been identified as factors in Rather than talking about the disadvantages of “the healthy old age, broadly defined. aged” as an “imaginary” homogeneous group, we

Henry and McCallum (forthcoming) use a cultural should divide the aged into lifetime class groupings. approach to deal with these factors - We will, then, find that those who have had high in-

. . . the culture adopted by any particular group income and access to expensive forms of health care dur- volves a lifestyle that has well defined effects upon ing life are also those who enjoy the same advantages the health of those living and ageing within it . . . during old age. Such sub-cultures also have different

One specific Australian cultural feature has been diet and exercise patterns. Generally lower socio- dealt with already, namely the near complete absence economic groups are less receptive to exercise and have of paid work in late life. However, the topic of culture less healthy diets. I t may also be that they suffer more is vast including choice of diet with many variations of passive stress than higher status groups. Thus sub- fat, sugar and fibre, of the habituated use of cultures identified by different socio-economic status stimulants like nicotine and caffeine, and drugs such have different lifestyles partly determined by lifetime as alcohol and marihuana. I t includes physical exer- advantages or disadvantages. I n our new interest in the tion ranging from near obsession to absence and a aged as a group, we should not lose sight of the fact general flabby obesity. I t dictates a Protestant (or that much of what happens to the elderly is determined Confucian) ethic type ‘workaholism’ or relative inertia by lifetime patterns which we d o have the power to do of stone age peoples of central Australia. All these fac- something about in ou r social welfare policies during tors and their health implications are discussed in younger years. scientific papers and popular media reports and, As Australia begins to move towards a period when therefore, are generally available as options in late life demographic change will create pressures for social - despite our cultural prejudices for particular change, these observations on culture become very im- bchaviours. I would like t o deal with one type of fac- portant. Demographic change is not an immutable tor, psychosocial patterns, and one area of health, force. Both the markers of when ageing begins and the heart disease and high blood pressure, to establish a social structures which constrain the ageing process general argument about culture and lifestyle. are changeable. Some changes will ensue by implica-

tion from demographic changes but for many others A modernized society like Australia is prone to we do have the power direct and create them. We “diseases of affluence” like high blood pressure and upon where we heart disease. Henry and Cassel (1969) report that would like be heading in of l i fes tyle of our blood pressure is lower when the culture is stable, ageing p o p u ~ a t i o n . Austral ian tendency leave when traditional forms are honoured and when group politics and social change to else, mos t ly

begin to reach

members are adapted to their roles by early ex- happen by default, may be a problem here. While perience. Henry and McCallum (forthcoming) pro- lifestyle matters like diet and exercise can be dealt with Pose that ‘ ‘ a . . chronic hypertension is found where by public and private promoters in the privacy of one’s the ageing individual is denied the expectations of his home, social change cannot. I t is far easier talk childhood as a result of life in a changing. crowded about the of an ageing society, than about the and competitive society”. However, the development lifestyle implications that from i t . particularly of atherosclerosis typical of coronary heart disease re- the socjo-cultural components of lifestyle involve mat- quires a lifestyle to which ‘culture’ adds another set of ters of social ethics and politics which are difficult to factors. The combination of a high fat diet with am- achieve agreement about and in which we have shown bitious workaholism when accompanied with hostility little sustained conviction for change in the recent

past. have a tendency to develop emotions fostering the development of obstructions of the coronary vessels (Bruhn et. al. 1974). Thus in one culture, Japan, where group culture diminishes hostility, one finds much The Information Option for Change hypertension in both sexes but little coronary heart The argument so far has been that Australia has disease (Marmot and Syme 1976). In other cultures, undergone its demographic transition and that this will USA and Australia, both are evident in males but only produce rapid population ageing in the next century. hypertension in females (Henry and Stephens 1977). In Already retirement in the sense of complete still other cultures because of the absence of withdrawal from work at relatively young ages in late

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life has become a normal lifestyle. More people are entering this career stage earlier and there is only minor evidence of problems with this period of life. Despite this, i t is true that only a basic set of late life options are secured in this retirement life phase. We can expect to see greater demands for more attractive and diverse options for late life. Secondly i t was argued that the culture in which one lives and ages, predicts a lifestyle (or lifestyles) which have well defined effects on health - in the broad sense of that word. The capacity to produce change in these lifestyles toward healthier, happier patterns is in the hands of individuals. What is not in the hands of individuals is reliable information upon which to base their choices. For this they are dependent upon Government and other centralized sources. It is essential that we advocate for the provision of such information through education and applied research.

We already have an active pre-retirement education provision in Australia. Its quality is hignly variable both in content and in educational technique. We have no national study of the coverage of pre-retirement education in Australia but it is highly unlikely that it exceeds the British estimate of 7 per cent of the workforce being provided with such courses (Phillip- son, 1983). As the one and only public intervention in the process of retirement such courses deserve support particularly in the provision of information relevant to retirement lifestyle. Although lifetime habits are difficult to change, diet and exercise behaviour can be ef- fectively taught in this context especially i f there is some follow-up. As always the area of social behaviour is not appropriate for teaching but the context of pre-retirement education naturally provides social support for the retiree (McCallum, 1984B). Pro- vided the programme structure allows i t there will be much interchange of views between participants, particularly i f good direction is provided by speakers. This can, in the longer term, create a more articulate and organized group of retirees who are able to create a more attractive lifestyle For our elderly (McCallum 19838). Having moved as far as we have in creating late life leisure, it should be now our purpose to promote precisely this, namely, a more attractive retirement.

There is now a boom occurring in post-retirement educational activities for older persons in Australia. Besides the existing and well known providers of education like TAFE colleges, new groups like Universities of the Third Age and Colleges for Seniors have had quite remarkable responses in the short time of their operation (Picton 1984). Again this social activity is useful in itself as well as being a fertile ground for the sowing of new ideas on lifestyle. We should not, however, overrate the potential of these late life educational enterprises. They are, in general, narrow in their coverage of population and very poorly supported by public funding agencies. It is a comment on our culture that education in younger years is compulsory and fully supported by Government whereas in the other period of non-working, retirement life,

not only is education not compulsory but it is virtually forgotten by public funding bodies. Consider the hypothetical proposition that three years of education be made compulsory after retirement for the kiilds of purposes being discussed here and the potential for change becomes clear as, alternatively, does our bias against education for old age. As Moody (1976:l) astutely observes:

“Education for the older adult, unlike education or training for the young, is not an activity that is in any way functionally required for the maintenance of society”.

Within the cultural perspective I am proposing here, it is the culture within which one ages which has demonstrated effccts in later life. It is the entire lifestyle which is then relevant to well-being ir? old age, particularly, but not exclusively through the medium of one’s health. We have already well known health promotion campaigns in :he areas of diet and exercise and these are to be encouraged and supported. In the area of social behaviour simple health promotion becomes inappropriate. What is needed is greater public discussion on the implications of lifestyles and the discussion and advocacy of new lifestyles for the future. This is essentially a social and political process rather than a factual and scientific one. However, it does depend upon some information about the shif- ting ground of Australian values and about the pro- bable consequences of different lifestyles. Within this kicd of discussion no one person’s views have essentially more value than any other person and progress can be made only when moral agreement or some modified consensus is reached. In this process genuine moral leadership is essential and not necessarily available from those whose education has been con- centrated in factual and scientific fields. It is clearly the difficult end of the lifestyle promotion domain.

’

Conclusion The demographic transition of declining birth and

mortality rates has produced a shift in the structure of the Australian population towards older age groups. The clear acceptance of a retirement lifestyle (without work) is by no means a necessary consequence of an ageing society but rather a cultural creation emerging from Australian history and values. Culture produces various lifestyle options which have both direct and cumulative effects on late life well-being. The diet and exercise elements of such lifestyles are well promoted and researched. By contrast we are just beginning to tease out consequences of different patterns of social behaviour and their consequences. In particular it is becoming clear that life in a crowded, changing and highly competitive society is a risk factor in hypertension. When high fat diet and individual hostility are added to this there is a risk of heart disease particularly among men. This hostile attitude arises in the absence of assured social support and of stable social groups like family and work groups. In areas of social change, however, it is neither possible or desirable to wind back the clock. We need, rather, some strategies

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for harnessing change so that more healthy and balanced lifestyles are available for the future.

The ageing of Australian society has recently produced one clear change in political values. No longer is “age” itself a justifiable criterion for welfare. Rather “need” is back in vogue as the test criterion with age being, at times, a useful indicator. Gone are the days of universalism in our thinking about weifare for the aged. There will be many other political and social changes that will be induced by rapid ageing of the population. It is desirable that we provide information and disseminate it to allow some social direction of these fundamental changes. In the end change in social behaviour can only be the consequence of grassroots consensus and individual desire to change. As lifestyle options, diet and exercise may be easier to promote, but in the end result social behaviour may be more important to well-being.

Dr. John McCallum A eing and the Family Project. Research School of Social Sciences. T i e Auslralian National University. Canberra. A C T 2601.

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Henry, J . P. and Cassel. J . C. (1969) Psychosocial factors in essential hypertension: Recent epidemiological and animal experimental evidence. Journal of Epldemlology. 90, 1-200.

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LIFESTYLE IMPLICATIONS OF AUSTRALIAN RETIREMENT PATTERNS