Climbing stairs or lifting groceries tough on older women

TASKS such as climbing stairs, lifting groceries or using the phone may be more difficult for women than men as they age, a new study has suggested.

However, researchers say that while women struggle more with both regular daily tasks and mobility activities as they get older, the disparities have been steadily decreasing as the socioeconomic gap between the sexes has decreased.

The research uses data from more than 27,000 men and 34,000 women aged 50 to 100, born between 1895 and 1960, to examine sex differences in daily activity and mobility limitations.

The information was obtained from four large longitudinal studies, covering 14 countries.

Lead author Mikaela Bloomberg, PHD candidate, UCL epidemiology and public health, said: “We found that women are more likely to be limited than men in carrying out daily tasks from age 70 while we observed women were more likely to be limited in mobility activities from age 50 onward.

“This is an important observation because mobility limitations can precede other more severe limitations, and targeting these gaps at middle age could be one way to reduce sex differences in limitations at older ages.”

Overall, the researchers found women were more likely than men to be limited in their functional capacity – both tasks and mobility – as they get older.

From the age of 75, they were also more likely to have three or more mobility issues, for example going up a flight of stairs, lifting grocery shopping, or reaching and extending the arms.

They were also more likely to have limitations with more complex daily tasks like managing money, using the telephone, taking medication or making meals compared to men, who were more likely to have just one or two.

The researchers found that at age 85 the prevalence of three or more mobility limitations was 10 per cent higher in women than in men.