A study on the difference of physical exercise, manual labor and housework activities among urban and rural elderly population—— Based on CLHLS data

Abstract

This paper analyzes the differences of physical exercise, physical labor and housework activities among the elderly in urban and rural China based on CLHLS data from the 2018 China Aging Health and Longevity Tracking Survey (CLHLS).The results showed that after controlling for population, socioeconomic, lifestyle, self-rated health and external support, there were differences in physical exercise, physical labor and housework participation among the elderly in urban and rural areas (p<0.001).In terms of physical exercise, the urban elderly are more than the rural elderly, in terms of physical labor, the urban elderly are less than the rural elderly, and the urban elderly are less than the rural elderly.Conclusions: After controlling for some important factors, the differences in physical exercise, manual labor and housework activities among the elderly in urban and rural areas are actually smaller than observed.In addition, demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle, self-rated health and external support variables could not be ignored to explain the differences in physical exercise, manual labor and household activities among the elderly.Moreover, in the dimensions of physical exercise, physical labor and housework, the effects and mechanisms of different variables are also different.