Predictors of social leisure activities in older Europeans with and without multimorbidity

Abstract

Older people spend much time participating in leisure activities, such as taking part in organized activities and going out, but the extent of participation may differ according to both individual and environmental resources available. Chronic health problems become more prevalent at higher ages and likely necessitate tapping different resources to maintain social participation. This paper compares predictors of participation in social leisure activities between older people with and those without multimorbidity. The European Project on Osteoarthritis (EPOSA) was conducted in Germany, UK, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden (N = 2942, mean age 74.2 (5.2)). Multivariate regression was used to predict social leisure participation and degree of participation in people with and without multimorbidity. Fewer older people with multimorbidity participated in social leisure activities (90.6 %), compared to those without multimorbidity (93.9 %). The frequency of participation was also lower compared to people without multimorbidity. Higher socioeconomic status, widowhood, a larger network of friends, volunteering, transportation possibilities and having fewer depressive symptoms were important for (the degree of) social leisure participation. Statistically significant differences between the multimorbidity groups were observed for volunteering and driving a car, which were more important predictors of participation in those with multimorbidity. In contrast, self-reported income appeared more important for those without multimorbidity, compared to those who had multimorbidity. Policies focusing on social (network of friends), physical (physical performance) and psychological factors (depressive symptoms) and on transportation possibilities are recommended to enable all older people to participate in social leisure activities.

Increasing social participation of older people: are there different barriers for those in poor health? Introduction to the special section

“…Participation in social leisure activities proves to be rather high in the six European countries studied by Galenkamp et al (2016). Interventions may therefore be targeted at the intensity of participation, in particular in those with poor health.…”

Exploring the happiness and sense of purpose associated with older peoples' activities using ecological momentary analysis: an observational study

“…Furthermore, activities were classi ed as active or passive retrospectively by the researchers, which risked misclassi cations. Moreover, memories of feelings experienced yesterday -as collected by the ATUS -are less reliable than immediate recall, particularly for older adults (Galenkamp et al, 2016), who may be experiencing decline in short-term memory (Verhaeghen, 2013).…”

“…At the initial meeting participants completed a survey through the Ethica app which asked about age, gender, ethnicity, religion, self-assessed health, highest educational level achieved, whether living alone, whether working part-time or not, number of adults in household, and overall life satisfaction and worthwhileness of life, all of which have been previously identi ed as confounding factors in analyses of subjective wellbeing (Dolan, Kudrna and Stone, 2017), or associated with choice of leisure-time activities (Galenkamp et al, 2016). Principal sources for question wordings included the O ce for National Statistics harmonised wordings for the 2011 Census and the Taking Part Survey questions (Ipsos MORI, 2018) Over the seven days of monitoring, participants received six prompts at random within 150-minute windows between 06:30 and 21:30 to complete 6 questions about their main activity in the last hour and their feelings of happiness and sense of purpose during that activity.…”

Residential mobility, second homes and quality of life: Consequences of moving out from the city of Madrid

“…It should be remembered that physical activity in older people is closely related to the ability to remain functional (Clark et al, 2001). Galenkamp et al (2016) have determined the benefit of various leisure activities on intellectual functioning, although Glass et al (1999) show that the benefits of non-physical activities on health are also important as they improve physical fitness and reduce the risk of mortality in all its causes.…”

“…The relationship between QoL and leisure and the activities of the daily life are sufficiently documented, with empirical studies showing the enormous benefits of practising various activities at an advanced age and as an important subjective source of well-being in people (Nordbakke, Schwanen, 2014;Galenkamp et al, 2016). The theory about the practise of activities relates leisure activities to life satisfaction, and has helped provide an understanding of the positive effect that participation in activities has on health and QoL.…”