Women’s Experiences of Paid Work and Planning for Retirement 

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) is a large population-based study planned to run for at least 20 years. In 1996, three age-cohorts of women were established through random sampling from the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare) database. Women living in rural and remote parts of Australia were deliberately over-sampled (at twice the rate of women living in urban areas) to allow precise estimates of health for women living in different parts of Australia and to enable insights into the different experiences and changes in health for women living in different areas.

The ALSWH was designed to explore factors that influence health among women who are broadly representative of the entire Australian population. The study assesses physical and emotional health; time use (including paid and unpaid work, family roles, and leisure); socio-demographic factors (location, education, employment, family composition); and life stages and key events (such as childbirth, divorce, widowhood). The details of the ALSWH methodology have been published elsewhere (Brown et al, 1996; Brown et al, 1998; Lee, et al, 2005) and can be accessed on the Study's website at www.alswh.org.au.

Figure 1 provides an overview of the ALSWH timeline. Women in the mid-age cohort were aged 45-50 at the time of the first postal survey in 1996. Since that time, the women have been invited to complete three follow-up surveys: Survey 2, in 1998; Survey 3 in 2001, and Survey 4 in 2004. In each survey, women were asked to answer a large number of closed questions about their health and lifestyle, and to provide comments in response to a final open-ended question.

Figure 1: ALSWH timeline

The main measure of health used in the study is the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey, which is an international standard generic measure of health-related quality of life. This instrument provides two summary measures: the 'physical health component score' (PCS) and the 'mental health component score' (MCS). Each score is measured on a scale of 0-100, with higher scores representing better health.

Women were asked to provide comments on their own circumstances or on issues raised in the survey by means of the final open-ended question: Is there anything you would like to tell us? Have we forgotten anything? Where comments are reproduced in this report, potentially identifying details have been modified in order to maintain the anonymity of the participants.

In Survey 4, a series of questions about retirement was included. Retirement questions were initially based on those used in the Wave 3 Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey ⁴, but were modified and additions made. See Appendix 1 for the full wording of ALSWH survey questions used in this report. Frequencies for the variables used in the report can be accessed in the data books for the mid-age cohort on the ALSWH web site at www.alswh.org.au.

From this point throughout the report, 'M' followed by a number signifies a specific mid-age survey. For example, M4 refers to the fourth survey for the mid-age cohort.

Classifications and definitions

The following notes provide some explanations for the creation of categories used in this report.

Sampling from the population was random within the mid-age group, except that women from rural and remote areas were sampled at twice the rate of women in urban areas. This over sampling meant that the numbers living outside major urban areas were large enough to allow statistical comparisons of the circumstances and health of city and country women, an important issue for Australia now and in the future.

In 1996, 13716 mid-age women responded to M1. In 1998, 12338 mid-age women responded to M2. In 2001, 11200 mid-age women responded to M3. In 2004, 10905 mid-age women responded to M4. Of the 13716 women who completed M1, 9861 have responded to all four surveys.

Occupation
Occupation was measured at M1, M3 and M4. There were some differences in coding and examples for the occupation question at the three surveys. One major difference was that a registered nurse was classified as a para-professional at M1 but as a professional at M3 and M4. It is obvious that at least 397 women answered according to the classification; others may not have answered this way. As a result of these differences, we have decided to combine managerial, professional and para-professional as professional. Based on this classification, 81% (2793/3455) of professionals at M1 were working as professionals at subsequent surveys or have ceased work. Another difference was the classification of clerical workers as administrative assistant, sales or service worker at M1 and as advanced, intermediate and elementary clerical, sales or service worker at M3 and M4. Therefore the two clerical classifications at M1 and the three classifications at M3 and M4 make up clerical. Other classifications are tradesperson; production, transport or manual worker; and no paid job. Another category at M1 was 'other occupation' and this was recoded to an occupation based on the response at M3. This reclassification would make up occupation at M1 and is used for the tables that include occupation. Women were asked to give their occupation at M2 and these were then coded, whereas in M1, M3 and M4 the women were given occupation categories with examples from which to choose.

Area: RRMA
Women were classified into area using the Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Area (RRMA) classification system. Using the 7 RRMA classifications, area was reclassified as outlined below:

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Retirement Status
Women who were not retired or partially retired were classified as not retired. Women who had retired less than 20 years ago or more than 20 years ago or who had never worked were classified as retired.

Retirement Age
Retirement age was determined for participants whose status was classified as retired at M4. M4 was conducted in 2004, therefore retirement age was determined by subtracting the number of years retired (2004 minus year in which retired) from the participant's age (age at M1 survey plus eight).

Hours Worked
The hours worked were divided into four categories as follows:

Funding Retirement
Sources of income were dichotomised. Participants were entitled to answer multiple options. To make these groups mutually exclusive, anyone who answered that they received an Age pension/Service pension/War Widow's pension or other government pension or allowance, whether they answered some of the non-government options or not, were classified as receiving government funding. Otherwise they fell into the category of non-government funding. The two categories and option classification are outlined below.

Government:

• Age pension/Service pension/War Widow's pension
• Other government pension or allowance

Non-government:

• Lump sum superannuation
• Pension or annuity purchased with super or other funds
• Income from savings
• Income from a business
• Income/pension from spouse/partner
• Financial support from family
• Other

Marital Status
A standard married status variable was created for consistency across the surveys. Same sex and opposite sex de facto relationship categories were combined into one category called de facto relationship. The options for the marital status variable are set out below.

• Married
• De facto
  • De facto opposite sex
  • De facto same sex
• Separated
• Divorced
• Widowed
• Never married

Education Level
The highest education qualification obtained was asked at M1 with six options given. These options were reduced to 4 categories:

• Some schooling (None/year 10)
  • No formal qualifications
  • School or Intermediate Certificate
• Higher School or Leaving Certificate
  • Finished school (Year 12)
• Trade/apprenticeship or Certificate/Diploma
• Degree/Higher degree
  • University degree
  • Higher University degree

Ability to manage on their income
Collapsed from five categories to three:

• Impossible/difficult
• Sometimes difficult
• Not too bad/easy

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Managing time
How often participants are rushed, pressured or busy was collapsed into three categories:

• Every day, few times a week
• Once a week
• Once a month, never

Labour Force Characteristics

• Paid work
• Unemployed and looking for work
• Work without pay in family business
• No paid work

Dependent Children
'Dependent on income but not living at home' was combined with 'children living at home' to create the variable 'dependent children'.

Provision of Care
In regard to the regular provision of care or assistance to any other person because of long-term illness, frailty or disability, M2, M3 and M4 asked whether the person lives with you or elsewhere. M1 didn't provide the option. For the models the options were combined to answer the question, 'Do you provide care?'

Health service usage: Family doctor or another general practitioner
GP visits were collapsed into 3 categories:

• 0-2 visits per year
• 3-4 visits per year
• 5+ visits per year

4. Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda).