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Home > Ministers > The Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform, Minister for Housing and Homelessness > Media Hub > Women, Health and Ageing – New Results from Longitudinal Study on Women in their 80s

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PDF printable version of Women, Health and Ageing – New Results from Longitudinal Study on Women in Their 80s (PDF 26 KB)

31 March 2001

The latest major report from the ongoing Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health was today released, focussing on the health of older women.

“Not surprisingly, this important report shows that the life experiences of women now in their 70s and 80s are very different from those of their daughters and granddaughters,” Minister for Mental Health and Ageing Mark Butler said.

“Knowing more about the key issues that impact on women’s health is fundamental to improving health outcomes.

“Studying the health of older women, and the underpinning social and behavioural determinants, may point to important prevention opportunities for younger generations of women.”

To support the Study, now in its 17th year, Minister Roxon announced in December 2010 additional Government support of $5.3 million – to create a younger cohort in the study and to enable examination of the changes and challenges to women’s health over time across a broader range of age groups.

This report, Women, health and ageing: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, includes information and analysis from the fifth survey over time on the same set of 40,000 women drawn from three age groups.

“The information not only gives a really good picture of the Health of older Australian women today, but also gives an insight into the health of future generations,” Mr Butler said.

While some descriptive information about trends in health from all age cohorts is included in the current report, the focus of analyses is on data collected from the oldest cohort, who were born between 1921 and 1926, and are now aged 85 to 90 years.

The report reveals that ischaemic heart disease is the leading cause of death and disability for women aged 65 and older. Among women aged 65-74, type 2 diabetes and breast cancer are the next two highest causes, while dementia and stroke are the next two highest causes of death and disability among women over age 75.

“Most of the older women in the study reported living with one chronic condition, and many had multiple conditions. So, to examine the effects of chronic conditions on a woman’s quality of life, this study focussed four common conditions in detail – arthritis, diabetes, sleep problems and incontinence.”

Many conditions such as dementia, sensory impairments and falls, do not have a greater age specific incidence among women, but because women live longer they tend to account for the greatest proportion of people with these conditions, particularly at advanced ages.

Other findings include:

• only 9% of the women were engaging in high levels of physical activity and another 4% were engaging in very high levels, suggesting that these levels may not be obtainable for most women in this age range
• moderate and high levels of physical activity were associated with lower risk of falls among women aged 70-75 years
• very high levels of physical activity were associated with reduced odds of fractures among women aged 70-75 years.

“A goal of the National Women’s Health Policy 2010 is to support effective and collaborative research to advance the evidence base on women’s health,” Mr Butler said.

“With the release of this report, the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health team continues to make a significant contribution to our knowledge base and provide evidence-based information that can be used by policy makers, program managers and service providers to improve women’s health.”

For more information contact Mr Butler’s office on 02 6277 7280