The goals of this article are (a) to describe the daily life of the very old in terms of frequency, duration, variety, and social and physical contexts of activities, and (b) to examine the effects of background variables (e.g., age, sex, residential and marital status, income, and education) on late life activity engagement. A representative sample of 516 adults aged 70-105 was interviewed about their activities using the Yesterday Interview. In contrast to most research on activity engagement, this measurement approach allows for assessment of both the type and context of activities engaged in during the day preceding the interview. The results indicated high frequencies of obligatory activities but also showed substantial time spent in discretionary activities, with television viewing occupying most of the participants' leisure time. Most activities were done alone and at home. In bivariate and multiple regression analyses, age and residential status had the strongest association with activity frequency, duration, and variety; the oldest-old and those residing in long-term care facilities had lower levels of activity engagement. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance for successful aging.

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In the present paper the focus is on structural aspects of everyday competence and its relationship with various personal resources, such as health, social status, self concept and cognition. The findings support the hypothesis that two distinct, albeit intercorrelated, components of everyday competence are differentially related to the various resources examined in this paper. The two components are a basic level of competence (BaCo) which is denned mainly by self-care related activities, and an expanded level of competence (ExCo) associated mostly with leisure and social activities and advanced instrumental activities of daily living. In general, BaCo is more strongly related to health-related resources, and ExCo is more strongly associated with behavioural, psychological and social resources. 90.6 % of the reliable variance in ExCo and 82.4% in BaCo are explained by these selected resources. Furthermore, all of the age-related variance in everyday competence is accounted for by these health-related and sociobehavioural resources.Note: Correlations in italics are significant at p < 0.05.

Psychiatric patients' partners are at a high risk of developing a depressive disorder. It appears necessary to develop special interventions for spouses reducing stress and the risk of getting depressed.

Better treatment, professional support and participation in self-help and advocacy groups may help to improve the quality of life of spouses of mentally ill people.