FIGURE IT OUT… ‘Ageing well’ may also, and often does, involve reducing one's involvement in certain activities.

Muriel SAHRAOUI, an occupational therapist, studies the social and life-course characteristics that shape people’s engagement as they grow older. She compares observed forms of occupational engagement with the archetypes of “ageing well” conveyed in public discourse, which present it as an ideal of active participation across different areas of everyday life.

Drawing on the longitudinal SHARE survey, she identifies engagement profiles based on the social, family and domestic activities reported in 2013 by 4,505 people aged 50 and over. She then examines 13,427 transitions across survey waves up to 2023, focusing in particular on pathways reflecting processes of “déprise”, characterised by reorganisation and adaptation.

Among the five profiles identified, the one that most closely resembles representations of “ageing well” included 7.6% of participants in 2013. It combined physical activity, participation in clubs, volunteering, training and community engagement. Over time, fewer than 19% of these individuals remained in this profile; 20% shifted towards helping relatives, 11% and 6% towards community and social activities respectively, and nearly 44% towards activities mainly carried out at home.

These transitions were associated with a combination of individual and collective factors, including health, major life events, availability, mobility opportunities, financial resources and access to local services. Once these factors were taken into account, certain trajectories of reduced engagement were also associated with well-being.

The ideal of “ageing well” appears to be a minority configuration that is not accessible to everyone. Thus, it is therefore important to distinguish between different trajectories of reduced engagement. These findings call for recognising and supporting pathways that preserve quality of life, including when they involve a reduction in certain forms of engagement.