Productive and safe workplaces for an ageing workforce

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Understanding age-related changes

Some of the processes of ageing may make older workers more vulnerable to some types of occupational injuries, but the nature and extent of their vulnerability will depend on their work situation. It is important that employers understand the implications of ageing for employees' performance capacity so that they can, where necessary, implement strategies to reduce the risks in their workplaces.

Figure1: Projected age profile 2012, and actual age profile 2002

Chart

Source: Organisational Renewal, based on Australian Public Service Employment Database, Australian Government Actuary projections. These projections assume that the age distributions of new entrants and those leaving are based on engagement and separation age profiles for the past two years. The projections have been derived assuming that the exit rates observed over the two years to 30 June 2002 continue into the future.

Age and performance capacity

In the physical domain, it is well established that agerelated reductions in muscular strength can reduce people's capacity to perform physically heavy work. However, the declines vary greatly with physical condition—and older workers who strive to stay physically fit may be able to outperform more sedentary younger workers. Cardiovascular capacity and aerobic power also tends to decline with age. This means that older workers typically have a lower ability to do heavy work, particularly at a fast speed, to work in heat, and more generally to do work which tends to cause shortness of breath. The cardio-respiratory load of even moderate tasks can become particularly critical for older unfit people.⁵

Age is also associated with reduced elasticity in almost all tissues of the body, leading to a decreased range of movement. These changes have implications for tasks where workplace layout requires work at extremes of posture⁶, although individual differences can be significant and can be enhanced through physical activity.⁷

In the area of mental ability, there is considerable individual variability in the timing, order and occurrence of cognitive changes, and some researchers dispute the assumption that age-related changes have negative implications for performance capacity.⁸ The Seattle Longitudinal Study, which has continued at seven-year intervals since 1956, has found that a decline in most measurable mental abilities is not reliably observed before age 60. Robertson and Tracy concluded that agerelated changes in intellectual functioning are typically minimal for healthy workers with high levels of education and training who are exposed to appropriate stimulation by their surroundings.⁹ Other studies have shown that while older workers were inferior to younger workers in laboratory tests, they were superior on production performance.¹⁰

One of the more robust findings in the ageing literature is that older adults consistently perform more slowly than younger adults on many cognitive and psychomotor tasks.¹¹ This slowing begins in young adulthood and progresses with age, although its importance depends on work requirements. Studies suggest that the decline in information processing capacity tends to become apparent when tasks are more complex, and under some stressful conditions. Task demands usually only cause a problem for older workers, however, when they are accompanied by time constraints and where the employee has no control over such constraints.¹²

It should be noted that the quality (as distinct from the speed) of decision making tends to improve with expertise, experience and age. While the relevance of expertise and experience to task completion will depend on the nature and complexity of the task, it can be sufficient to overcome the impact of the slowing in processing time that may be associated with age.¹³ Also, more experienced workers are likely to have a wider range of effective performance strategies, and these strategies may assist them to counter-balance the effect of a slowing in the speed of information processing.

Age and high risk work environments

The impact of ageing on performance capacity, and the impact of work on older employees tend to be more critical in physically demanding working environments and/or environments where a number of risk factors interact. Three types of risks have been identified that predict a decline in work capacity, namely:

work content/physical loading—static muscular work, lifting and carrying, sudden peak loads, repetitive movements and awkward postures
stressful and dangerous workplaces—noise, fumes, heat and humidity
organisational environment—role conflicts, poor supervision and planning, fear of failure or mistake, time pressure, lack of freedom of choice, lack of personal development and lack of acknowledgement.

Each of these factors can singularly increase the risk of decline in work capacity, but the greater the number of factors that a worker is exposed to, the higher the risk of steep decline after 50 years of age.¹⁴

Studies suggest that workers who in past years were most exposed to physically demanding work environments typically have more musculoskeletal disorders, poorer health, and a much higher rate of permanent disability and associated costs.¹⁵ Injury incidence and costs have been found to be significantly lower for older workers whose previous exposure to physically demanding work and risky environments was lower.¹⁶ One large study showed that when people moved from 'high risk' jobs to ones involving fewer physical risks (in particular, less repetitive work) and where supervisors were more supportive, their work performance and general health improved significantly despite their increasing age.¹⁷

Clearly, working conditions and work design rather than age are the keys to explaining these findings. When people are employed in badly designed work they 'age' at a faster rate, and the longer they spend doing such work, the higher their subsequent rate of injury and disability.¹⁸As a result, strategies that improve work and job design will benefit workers of all ages. And because people begin work at a young age, intervention at that age may be necessary to minimise problems arising in future years.

Age, health and performance capacity

Within the age range of our current workforce, deteriorating health is not an inevitable consequence of ageing. As noted above, there is considerable interindividual variability in the occurrence of age-related changes, and physical activity is one important factor in this equation. There is strong evidence that people aged 55 or older who follow an active lifestyle, have the daily functioning equivalent to less active people aged 15 years younger.¹⁹ It has been found that regular light-to-moderate activity may reduce age-associated deterioration in physiological function, while moderateto- vigorous physical activity may be necessary to bring about changes to the cardiovascular system and minimise disease risk factors.²⁰

However, the relationship between health and ageing is also affected by a range of other factors (such as gender, marital status, education, income, occupation and employment and country of birth)²¹, and it has been suggested that strategies to promote a healthy old age must start before birth and continue throughout the life course—including during the employment years. During these years the need for strategies to reduce damage (such as avoiding smoking), to protect against damage (such as by improving ergonomic intervention, job design and good nutrition), and to prevent loss through lack of use (such as through physical activity) have been identified.²² Increasingly the need for the work community and occupational health professionals to support such strategies is being recognised.

Health, physical activity and life style promotion strategies have been identified as important to the promotion of work ability among older workers.²³

Health promotion programs can also help to ‘immunise’ against workplace injury by building a safety culture and improving the social environment by bringing employees together and forming closer relationships.²⁴

In summary

Within the age range of our current workforce chronological age is a very crude indicator of health or performance capacity.
Individual differences and the effect of non-age related factors (such as physical activity) can be significant.
Strategies to minimise age-related problems should begin with young people and continue throughout the life course.
Strategies to be considered include adjustments to the physical and organisational working environment, health and life style promotion and updating professional skills.

5 K Munk, 2002

6 ibid.

7 Improvements in flexibility have been demonstrated through activities such as yoga, flexibility sessions and supervised aerobics; see NSW Health, 1999.

8 K Munk, 2002; P Warr, 1994

9 A Robertson and S Tracy, 1998; K Munk, 2002

10 Salvendy, quoted in K Munk, 2002

11 C Bolstad and T Hess, 2000; K Munk, 2002; Seattle Longitudinal Study

12 K Munk, 2002

13 C Bolstad and T Hess, 2000, p. 283

14 J Ilmarinen, 1997a; and K Munk, 2002

15 J Ilmarinen, K Tuomi and M Klockars, 1997; B de Zwart, J Broersen and M Frings-Dresen, 1997

16 J Seitsamo and J Illmarinen, 1997

17 J Ilmarinen, 1997

18 K Tuomi, et al., 1997

19 NSW Health, 1999

20 ibid.

21 J Byles and L Flicker, 2002, p. 2

22 ibid., p. 9

23 H Kemper, 1994; J Imarinen and J Rantanen, 1999; J Ilmarinen, 1999

24 K Mearns et al., 2000; R Simonds and Y Shafai-Sharai, 1977