Leisure time activities: A boost for elderly health

Abstract

Forty Five rural and urban male and female elderly under the age group of 60-74, 75-84\rand 85 and above were randomly selected from Dharwad Taluka. Data was collected\rthrough exploratory and personal interview methods. Individually administered\rquestionnaire consisted of personal information schedule to elicit auxiliary information\rof the subjects regarding demographic variables, Ageing scale was used to assess the\rhealth status and leisure time activities of elderly and socio-economic status scale\rwas employed to assess the SES of the family. To find out the association between\rhealth status, leisure time activities and independent variables non-parametric test\rwas employed. Correlation research design was employed to test the degree of\rrelationship between health status and leisure time activities of rural and urban elderly.\rResults showed that 58.50 per cent of rural elderly belonged to lower middle SES and\r47.40 per cent of the urban elderly belonged to upper middle SES. With respect to\rhealth problems, majority of the elderly had no health problems such as tremors (83.1%),\rasthma (79.4%), heart problem (79.1%), constipation (77.7%), headache (76.3%), heal\rpain (74.4%), skin itching (71.8%), poor hearing (67.4), reproductive problems (67.2%),\racidity (64.8%), nerve problem (64.3%), uncontrollable bladder (52.4%), diabetes\r(46.3%), back pain (43%). Significant association was found between health status\rand gender of the rural elderly. Whereas non-significant association was found between\rhealth status and gender of the urban elderly. Majority of the rural and urban elderly\runder age group of 60-74 years old had good health status. Significant association\rwas found between health status and age of the rural elderly. Whereas, it was no\rsignificant in case of urban elderly. Majority of the elderly reported of involving in\rleisure time activities regularly like Going out for walk (76.7%), Involving in religious\ractivities (75.2%), Visiting friends (70.2%), Sleeping (63.3), watching TV (63%),\rGardening (60.9), Listening to music (57.6), Caring for grand children (40.6), Reading\r(32.4), Participating in sports/games (20.6), Working part/full time (18.1) and Participating\rin community organization. health status was positively and significantly correlated\rwith leisure time activities of the elderly (r=0.33). Indicating higher the engagement inthe leisure time activities, better the health status of the elderly.