Promoting healthy working life in an ageing and increasingly sedentary society

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight emergent occupational health issues associated with an ageing workforce and sedentary working life, their implications for injury prevention, work ability, and worker well-being. Older workers have a higher rate of injury and disease and their injuries are more costly. It is also known that physical capacity declines with age which is a concern for workers engaged in physically demanding work. In addition to physiological deterioration and the development of occult disease associated with ageing, lower physical capacity may in part be due to lower participation rates in physical activity, and the increasing tendency for sedentariness in working life. Indeed, physical inactivity and sedentary time are increasing in working life and are known to be independently associated with a higher risk of chronic disease-related morbidity and mortality, events which are largely preventable. While ageing and injury and disease are associated with declining work ability, in future more workers will be required to remain in employment beyond current retirement age to meet future workforce demands. This paper will suggest that work ability and worker well-being in an ageing workforce may be optimized by adjusting organizational work practices, by ergonomic re-design and by increasing physical activity in working life. Applied research examples will demonstrate how targeted exercise, incidental physical activity and reduced sitting time can be facilitated in the workplace to promote well-being and work ability.

Keywords:

• Ageing
• Occupational health
• Physical activity
• Sedentary behaviour
• Workplace

Acknowledgments

My thanks to physiotherapy honours students Millie Bradshaw and Antonia Radas for their valued assistance in compiling research and the bibliography for this manuscript.