Walking, gender differences across adult life

Review of a study on the gender differences across adult life by T. Pollard and J. Wagnild

Walking is associated with better mental and physical health and reduced mortality and, when used for transport, with reduced air and noise pollution. In contrast to other forms of physical activity, walking has the advantage of being accessible to most people. For these reasons, promotion of walking has become more prominent in public health campaigns .

The aim of this systematic review is to assess the current evidence on gender differences in walking in high income countries. We hypothesised that there are gender differences in participation in walking for leisure, for transport, and in total walking. We also set out to examine whether gender differences change across the life-course.

Results

• More women than men walk for leisure when all age groups are considered together, although the effect size is small.
• At younger ages more women walk for leisure than men but that this gender difference diminishes progressively with age, with evidence that it reverses in the oldest age groups so that more older men than older women walk for leisure.
• Walking for exercise found that more women walked than men, except in the oldest age group (60+), in which more men walked than women.
• Data on walking for fun or pleasure found that more women walked for fun than men.
• There is no evidence for a consistent gender difference in participation in walking for transport.
• There was no evidence for a gender difference in the prevalence of walking for any purpose in studies including all ages from the USA. Data reported by age group suggest that at younger ages more women walk than men, but at older ages the gender difference is very small.
• Walking for leisure is an activity that women can undertake with children and it is possible that child-care plays a role in the relatively high levels of walking for leisure in younger women.
• Young men’s relatively high levels of participation in sports and exercise decline with age, as reported for the UK and the USA, and it is possible that men adopt walking for leisure as a replacement for more vigorous activities as they get older.
• In the oldest age groups, the proportion of men walking for leisure declines, but the proportion of women walking for leisure declines more. This pattern may reflect differences in ability to walk in older age. A British study found that “mobility limitation” rises faster with age in women than in men, probably because of higher levels of morbidity in older women than in older men, including musculoskeletal problems.