Physical demands at work and physical activity are associated with frailty in retirement

The relationship between occupational physical activity and frailty is complex and understudied.

We explore whether moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in retirement and main lifetime occupation physical demands (OPD) are associated with frailty in retirement.

Retired adults aged 50 + who participated in waves 3-4 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe were included. We constructed a 65-item frailty index (FI; Wave 4). Linear regressions tested the independent associations between OPD (Wave 3) and retirement MVPA (Wave 4) with FI (B: 95% CI) controlling for occupation characteristics (Wave 3) and demographics (Wave 4). These models were repeated across country groups (Nordic; Mediterranean; Continental) and sexes.

We included 8,411 adults (51.1% male) aged 72.4 years (SD 8.0). Frequent MVPA was consistently associated with lower FI (-0.09 : 0.10--0.08, p < .001) while OPD was associated with higher FI (0.02 : 0.01-0.03, p < .001). The MVPA*OPD interaction (-0.02: -0.04--0.00, p = .043) was weakly associated with FI, but did not explain additional model variance or was significant among any country group or sex.

For a sample of European community-dwelling retirees, a physically demanding main lifetime occupation independently predicts worse frailty, even in individuals who are physically active in retirement.