Background Although regular participation in physical activity (PA) has health benefits across the life span, the proportion of people doing sufficient activity for these benefits decreases with age. The aim of this study was to identify motivating factors and context preferences for PA in people in their sixties, and to examine gender differences in these factors.

Methods Data were used from people aged 60–67 years who responded to a mail survey in Brisbane, Australia, in 2009. Respondents indicated their agreement/disagreement with seven PA motivators and 14 PA context preferences. Data were analyzed using multi-level multinomial logistic regression, adjusted for sociodemographic and health variables, and PA level.

Results Of the 1845 respondents, 59% was female. Based on self-reported PA, one in three respondents (35%) did not meet the PA guidelines of at least 150 min of moderate intensity PA per week. The three leading motivating factors for both women and men were to prevent health problems, to feel good and to lose weight. Women were more likely than men to be motivated by improving appearance (OR 2.93, 95%CI 2.07–4.15), spending time with others (1.76, 1.31–2.37), meeting friends (1.76, 1.31–2.36) or losing weight (1.74, 1.12–2.71). The three leading context preferences for both women and men were for activities close to home, at low cost and that could be done alone. Women were more likely than men to prefer activities that are with people of the same sex (OR 4.67, 95%CI 3.14–6.94), supervised (2.79, 1.94–4.02), with people the same age (2.00, 1.43–2.78) and at a fixed time (1.42, 1.06–1.91). Women were less likely than men to prefer activities that are competitive (OR 0.32, 95%CI 0.22–0.46), are vigorous (0.33, 0.24–0.47), require skill and practice (0.40, 0.29–0.55) and done outdoors (0.51, 0.30–0.86).

Conclusion Although there was overlap in motivating factors and context preferences for PA in women and men aged 60–67 years, there were also marked gender differences. These results suggest that PA options for people in their sixties should be tailored to meet gender specific interests in order to promote PA participation in this rapidly growing population group.