SILVER LININGS Understanding Women’S Relationship with Sport and Physical Activity in Later Life
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SILVER LININGS Understanding women’s relationship with sport and physical activity in later life womeninsport.org CONTENTS Acknowledgements 3 Executive summary 4 Introduction 6 Our approach 7 Key findings: 1. Attitudes towards ageing 8 2. Women’s lifestyles and values 12 3. Barriers to being active 18 4. How to support women to 22 become active in later life Conclusion 25 SILVER LININGS – Understanding women's relationship with sport and physical activity in later life 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to: • all the research participants • Age UK and the Richmond Group, which supported us with the research • 2CV, the research agency which conducted the study. This research was funded by Sport England. SILVER LININGS – Understanding women's relationship with sport and physical activity in later life 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Studies show that women are not as active as men in later life and are missing out on all the health and social benefits of sport. Women in Sport champions the right of every woman and girl in the UK to take part in physical activity, and is working to change the current sporting environment to empower more women to take part in sport. Above: participants from Dao © Ping Zhang/ Cambridge Lu CIC’s Senior Tai Chi Corner Photographers Association CIC Women in Sport has produced this report to Women who took part in the research didn’t guide sport providers in how to support more identify with the term ‘older women’. Instead, women to become active in later life and reap the term contributed to feelings of fear and the many benefits that sport brings. uncertainty. For deliverers of sport, it is important to think about messaging and how you promote We spoke to a sample of women to find out their your activities. attitudes to old age and how this affects their relationship with sport and physical activity. For Our research also looked at women’s values some women, their personal experience of ageing and their priorities in later life. Spending time can be a catalyst for change. For example, an with friends and family was particularly individual who recovers from a serious illness may important for the women we spoke to, as were find they have a new lease of life and want to developing new skills and volunteering and start a new sport or activity. supporting others. Many of the women we spoke to felt they had To engage women, sport providers need to align less structure and routine in their lives as they got their activities with these values. For example, older, and were looking to renew their sense of creating time for women to socialise at the end purpose and find new activities to fill their time. of an activity. SILVER LININGS – Understanding women's relationship with sport and physical activity in later life 4 We also looked at the barriers that prevent women from taking part in sport in later life. Some of the common issues were doubting their physical capability to be active, not having any role models they could relate to and a lack of positive messages about physical activity. The women, however, did recognise that they should be more active. Deliverers of sport need to tackle these barriers to turn women’s motivation into action. It is important to note that this is a small-scale research project, with a small sample size, and does not reflect the views of all women. We feel that further research is needed to explore the experiences of women from lower socio-economic groups and those from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background. We recommend that sport providers carry out their own research into the specific audiences they are targeting to find out women's values values and their relationship with sport and physical activity. This report offers a snapshot of women's relationship with sport in later life, and we hope it will provide a building block for the future, paving the way for more women to become active and stay that way. Above: Moe completing a triathlon © Catherine Giles SILVER LININGS – Understanding women's relationship with sport and physical activity in later life 5 INTRODUCTION Women in Sport wanted to gain a greater understanding of what ageing means for women and how this impacts their relationship with sport and physical activity. With the pension age rising, many grandparents caring for grandchildren and all of us living longer, what does it mean to be considered old? And what is the effect of ageing on women’s active lives? This report sets out the findings from our research Previous research has shown that people exploring the role that sport and physical activity understand the benefits of exercise in later life play during women’s later years. and want to be more active�, but this desire does not necessarily translate into action. We According to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), have built on our foundational piece of research, 42% of people aged 55 and over are inactive Understanding Women’s Lives�, to explore the (defined as doing less than 30 moderate minutes following areas: of physical activity per week), compared to 29% of the adult population¹. 1. Attitudes to ageing: This section looks at how women feel about Additionally, the gap between men and women’s ageing and what role this plays in their activity levels continues into older age. Over propensity to be active. half (52%) of women aged 65–74 meet CMO guidelines for physical activity compared with 2. Lifestyles and values: 58% of men, decreasing to only 21% of women This section delves into what women value in aged 75-84 compared to 43% of men². later life, how they currently fulfil these values outside of sport and physical activity, and how Finally, Sport England analysed inactivity data these activities can be a way to fulfil these values. in 2016 to identify key behaviour patterns³. The survey found that for those aged 50 and over, 3. Barriers to being active: 2.8 million people did no activity in the space This section examines women’s motivations for, of 28 days; 700,000 people did some form of and barriers to, participating in sport and physical moderate activity and 4.7 million people did activity, as well as current and possible options to only light intensity activities. Women aged 50 encourage them to take part more often. and over were more likely to have done no 4. How to support women to become active in physical activity in the last 28 days, compared later life: to other groups of people. This section looks at how sport providers can This is of great concern, and means women encourage women to take part in physical activity. continue to be disadvantaged in later life when Through greater understanding of these issues, it comes to sport and physical activity; they we will be able to support more women to become miss out on all the health, mental wellbeing and active in later life and reap the benefits that social benefits of sport. We therefore wanted taking part in sport and physical activity brings. to understand why these differences between men and women’s relationships with sport and physical activity exist. 1Sport England (2016) Active people survey 10 Q2 April 15-March 16, cited in Sport England (2017) Active ageing prospectus 2Craig, R., & Mindell, J. (2013) Health survey for England 2012. London: the Health and Social Care Information Centre 3Sport England (2016) Tackling inactivity: A guide to Sport England’s approach and investment 4Britain Thinks (2016) People with long-term conditions and attitudes towards physical activity. Richmond Group 5Women in Sport (2015) Understanding Women’s Lives SILVER LININGS – Understanding women's relationship with sport and physical activity in later life 6 OUR APPROACH Sport England defines older people as aged 55 and over. However, this is a huge age group, potentially spanning 40 years or more. The CMO’s report6 defines older people as 65 and above, but acknowledges that there are significant physical differences, ranging from athletic to frail and immobile. To narrow the focus of our research we decided to focus on women aged 55-75. These women are part of the baby boomers generation, born post Second World War, and are likely to be retired or approaching retirement from work. Our research consisted of a five-stage qualitative methodology: 1 4 DESK RESEARCH INTERACTIVE, CO-CREATIVE We reviewed a range of research on women aged WORKSHOPS 55-75 and physical activity to build a picture of Two groups of inactive women, aged between their relationship with sport. 55 and 75, took part in interactive workshops to enable us to better understand their values and 2 attitudes towards sport and physical activity, and the barriers preventing them taking part. INTERVIEWS The two groups were split by age—one group involved women aged 55–64 and the other We spoke to experts in the field of sport, fitness, 65-74—to identify key differences that emerge and ageing to identify themes, areas of interest as age increases. During these workshops the and interventions to explore further in the next women were asked to test hypotheses and stages of research. emerging recommendations and invited to co- design their ideal sport and fitness initiatives. 3 5 ONE-TO-ONE INTERVIEWS We interviewed five active women aged 55–75 to INTERACTIVE DEBRIEF give us a greater understanding of the values and WORKSHOP motivations of women who are still active, as well as the barriers and pathways to sport and physical We ran a workshop to share the findings of our activity.