Physical demands at work and physical activity are associated with frailty in retirement.

BACKGROUND

The relationship between occupational physical activity and frailty is complex and understudied.

OBJECTIVE

We explore whether moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in retirement and main lifetime occupation physical demands (OPD) are associated with frailty in retirement.

METHODS

Retired adults aged 50 + who participated in waves 3-4 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe were included. We constructed a 65-item frailty index (FI; Wave 4). Linear regressions tested the independent associations between OPD (Wave 3) and retirement MVPA (Wave 4) with FI (B: 95% CI) controlling for occupation characteristics (Wave 3) and demographics (Wave 4). These models were repeated across country groups (Nordic; Mediterranean; Continental) and sexes.

RESULTS

We included 8,411 adults (51.1% male) aged 72.4 years (SD 8.0). Frequent MVPA was consistently associated with lower FI (-0.09 : 0.10--0.08, p < .001) while OPD was associated with higher FI (0.02 : 0.01-0.03, p < .001). The MVPA*OPD interaction (-0.02: -0.04--0.00, p = .043) was weakly associated with FI, but did not explain additional model variance or was significant among any country group or sex.

CONCLUSIONS

For a sample of European community-dwelling retirees, a physically demanding main lifetime occupation independently predicts worse frailty, even in individuals who are physically active in retirement.