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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Place and wellbeing
— shedding light on activity interventions for older men | | Author(s) | C Milligan, S Payne, A Bingley |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 35, no 1, January 2015 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, January 2015 |
| Pages | pp 124-149 |
| Source | journals.cambridge.org/aso |
| Keywords | Older men ; Recreation ; Participation ; Well being ; Pilot ; United Kingdom. |
| Annotation | In the United Kingdom, one in five of the population are older men, many of whom live alone. Loneliness and social isolation is a growing issue for many of these older men, one that has been associated with elevated blood pressure, poor physical health, increased mortality and mental ill-health, including depression, suicide and dementia. Living alone and social isolation have tended to be viewed largely as issues affecting older women due to their greater life expectancy (LE); but the LE gap between men and women is closing, presenting new challenges for the health and well-being of older men. This is not unique to the United Kingdom. Although inclusionary social spaces and supportive social ties can be important for enhancing physical and mental wellbeing amongst older people, evidence suggests that lone-dwelling older men can experience greater difficulty in accessing effective social support, relative to older women. Understanding those spaces of communal activity that are likely to be successful in promoting health and wellbeing amongst older men is thus important if we are to improve their quality of life. This paper draws on research with a 'Men in Sheds' pilot programme in the UK, to illustrate how everyday spaces within local communities might be designed to both promote and maintain older men's health and well-being. In doing so, the authors aim to offer insights into how Sheds, as created and gendered spaces, may not only engage older men in ways that help to maintain their perceived health and well-being, but also provide sites within which older men can perform and reaffirm their masculinity. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-150619005 A |
| Classmark | BC: H: TMB: D:F:5HH: 4UC: 8 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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