Objectives: Promoting social and leisure activity participation in older adults could be effective in preventing their health decline. However, gender or regional differences in those activities remain unclear despite the necessity of gender- or region-specific approaches to their promotion. This study examined gender and urban-rural differences in going-out, social, and leisure activities among community-dwelling older adults.
Methods: Data were obtained from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). Those analyzed were 103,621 people aged 65 or older who were functionally independent and lived in one of 31 municipalities. A total of seven activity variables were assessed with weekly going out, engagement in paid work, monthly and any frequency of engagement in group activities, monthly and any frequency of contact with friends, and having hobbies. We additionally assessed the contents of the group activities and hobbies. Gender, age groups (young-old: 65-74; old-old: 75 and over), and region groups, which were categorized as rural, urban, or metropolitan, were assessed along with education, depression, and other covariates. A chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were conducted to examine the age group-stratified differences in the going-out, social, and leisure activities among gender and region groups (P<.01).
Results: Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that men were more likely to engage in weekly going out, paid work, and hobbies but less likely to engage in group activities and contact with friends, either monthly or at any frequency. Most activities were also found to differ significantly among the region groups. For instance, people in metropolitan areas were 2.3 times more likely to engage in weekly going out but were 0.4 (old-old group) or 0.5 times (young-old group) less likely to engage in contact with friends. Percentages of engagement in hobby- or sport-groups were over 20% in all gender and region groups; on the other hand, about 30% differences were found in the percentages of engagement in senior clubs or neighborhood associations between metropolitan and rural men. As for having hobbies, walking/jogging and gardening were popular across all gender and region groups, while the percentages of engagement in a variety of hobbies differed among gender and region groups.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest 1) differences in the levels of social and leisure activities among gender and region groups and 2) both similarities and differences in the popular group activities or hobbies among gender and region groups. Activity promotion for older adults should be targeted considering these gender and region group characteristics.