SAGA
PRESS RELEASE
September 30, 2011.
OVER-50S POUND THE PAVEMENT TO MAKE THE MOST OF THEIR “BONUS YEARS”.
A fast-growing club of over-50s are chasing improved fitness levels in later life.
Over-50s organisation Saga commissioned independently-conducted research of 10,500 people on the run up to Older People’s Day, October 1, 2011 – the theme of which is getting active and staying active - to establish just how fit older people are, and discovered that people in their mid-late 60s put in more hours of exercise than people in their early 50s.
“It’s really beginning to dawn on the older generations that the now defunct default retirement age is not a count-down to the nursing home, but the start of the ‘bonus years’ – and to make the most of the opportunities in work and play, they need to have a decent standard of fitness: so more older people are spending more time exercising, and feeling the benefits on many fronts,” said Dr Ros Altmann, Director-General of Saga.
The Saga study revealed that the vast majority of older people cite health improvement or active-life extension as the main reason for pavement pounding and Wii Fit workouts.
But while 38% of 50-somethings flex their muscles for between two and five hours a week, this is beaten by the 44% of 65 to 69-year-olds who exercise for up to five hours. In fact, the older groups are exercising even more than their younger peers. More than 40% of 50 to 54-year-olds did no exercise or “less than an hour” a week compared to 30% of 65 to 69-year-olds.
“By their mid-60s, older people realise they have a good few decades left in them – and being fit means they can make the most of it, so they’re increasing their exercise levels,” said Dr Altmann.
“We interact with millions of older people every day, so we’re perfectly positioned to give guidance: we employ and retain health and fitness experts whose sole responsibility in life is to do what they can to ensure the 21 million over-50s in the country extend their lives and lifestyle as long as possible, and our website’s health and wellbeing sections are getting more hits than ever. We’re consequently seeing a boom in over-50s who are increasing their exercise rates.
But fitness for older people is not all about tea dances and bowls: one in 25 over-50s, and one in 50 aged over 75 use Wii Fit as a way of keeping fit. More admit to using Wii Fit than bowls as a means of exercise.
Meanwhile, five times as many over-50s men compared to women say they’ve embarked on their exercise regime to improve their sex life. And there are some notable regional differences with, for example, five times as many older people in Yorkshire and Humberside compared to neighbouring North East using exercise to improve their physical relationship.
80% of Saga panellists say they are more conscious of the need to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle now than they were in their 30s. A quarter of women say they exercise more now than in their 30s.
The over-50s also believe maintaining their mental fitness is important - 99% agree that it is ‘very important’ or ‘important’ - and crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and TV quiz games were the most popular forms of mental exercises (60%, 40% and 36% respectively doing each). One-in-ten use electronic brain-training games.
Populus interviewed 10,483 Saga customers, all aged 50+, online, between 12 September and 15 September 2011. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules; for more information see www.populus.co.uk.
Full survey stats available on request.
Ends
For further information:
Saga Press Office
01303 771529.
