Healthy Aging and Happiness in the Korean Elderly Based upon Leisure Activity Type
Abstract
Background: Leisure activities contribute to a healthy retirement and increase the life satisfaction of the elderly, who may suffer from a stronger sense of emotional isolation, depression, and loneliness.
Methods: A total of 397 elderly Koreans aged 65 and over participated in this study on the differences in healthy aging and happiness depending on type of leisure activity (i.e., active, passive, and social activities). A cross-sectional survey design with a purposive sampling method to collect data were employed. SPSS 23.0 was used to conduct descriptive statistics analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, and one-way MANOVA.
Results: In terms of social health, the passive leisure participants had relatively lower mean scores than the other two groups. For the physical health factor, the active leisure participants had higher mean scores. There were no statistically significant differences in the levels of psychological health and happiness with life for the elderly participating in the active, passive, and social leisure activities. This study found that only active leisure activities help the elderly to enjoy their old age by increasing their physical health, indicating that the dissatisfaction and unhappiness incurred with the natural aging process can only be offset by a physical lifestyle. Furthermore, passive leisure activities that are enjoyed alone may impede a socially-healthy aging process.
Conclusion: While all forms of leisure activity can provide emotional stability, active leisure activity was deemed the most important in this study, as it helped resolve the most significant hurdle to maintaining health.
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34. Field A (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publi-cations.
35. Nunnally JC, Bernstein IH (1994). Psychomet-ric theory. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
36. Mannell RC (2011). Leisure, health and well-being. World Leis J, 49 (3): 114-28.
37. North TC, McGullagh P, Tran ZV (1990). Effect of exercise on depression. Exerc Sport Sci Rev, 18: 379-415.
38. Henderson KA, Bialeschki MD (2005). Lei-sure and active lifestyles: Research reflec-tions. Leis Sci, 27(5)355-365.
39. Kobriger SL, Smith J, Hollman JH et al (2006). The contribution of golf to daily physical activity recommendations: How many steps does it take to complete a round of golf? Mayo Clin Proc, 81 (8): 1041-3.
40. OECD (2013). A good life in old age? https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/PolicyBrief-Good-Life-in-Old-Age.pdf
41. Korean Institute of Sport Science (2013). A study on the health promotion program of the elderly in foreign countries for the age of 100. https://www.sports.re.kr/pyxis-api/1/digital-files/46c49840-3975-4ba5-9045-0db99b87fc1b
42. Crosnoe R, Elder Jr GH (2002). Successful adaptation in the later years: A life course approach to aging. Soc Psychol Q, 65 (4): 309-328.
43. Chou KL, Chi I (2002). Successful aging among the young-old, old-old, and old-est-old Chinese. Int J Aging Hum Dev, 54 (1): 1-14.
44. Jones CJ, Rose DJ (2008). Physical activity in-troduction of older adults. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
2. Oh EH (2014). Factors affecting the life ex-pectancy regarding health expenditure in WHO countries. Korean Public Health Res, 40 (1): 81-7.
3. Korean Statistical Information Service (2017). Korean population. Khttp://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?or-gId=101&tblId=DT_1BPA002&vw_cd=&list_id=&scrId=&seqNo=&lang_mode=ko&obj_var_id=&itm_id=&conn_path=E1
4. Im MY, Kim YJ (2011). A phenomenologi-cal study of suicide attempts in elders. J Korean Acad Nurs, 14 (1): 61-71.
5. Cutler DM, Glaeser EL, Norberg K (2001). Explaining rise in youth suicide. In: Risky behavior among youths: An economic analysis. Ed, J Gruber. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 219-70.
6. Baltes MM, Smith J (2003). New frontiers in the future of aging: From successful ag-ing of the young old to the dilemmas of the fourth age. Gerontology, 49 (2): 123-35.
7. Kim SM, Jang HT (2017). Korea officially becomes aged society. Chosunilbo & Chosun.com,Korea. http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2017/09/04/2017090401307.html
8. 8. Shin K, You S (2013). Leisure type, leisure satisfaction and adolescents’ psychologi-cal wellbeing. J Pac Rim Psychol, 7 (2): 53-62.
9. Rowe JW, Kahn RL (1998). Successful aging. New York: Random House.
10. Zacher H (2015). Successful aging at work. Work Aging Retirement, 1 (1): 4-25.
11. Ko DS, Won YS (2009). The effect of phys-ical fitness and exercise participation on healthy aging of the elderly. Korean Geron-tol Soc, 29 (3): 899-915.
12. Beard JR, Officer A, De Carvalho IA et al (2016). The World report on ageing and health: A policy framework for healthy ageing. Lancet, 387 (10033): 2145-2154.
13. Tavares RE, De Jesus MCP, Machado DR et al (2017). Healthy aging from the per-spective of the elderly: An integrative re-view. Rev Bras Geriatr Gerontol, 20 (6): 878-89.
14. Katz S (2000). Busy bodies: Activity, aging, and the management of everyday life. Journal of Aging Studies, 14 (2): 135-52.
15. Bowling A (2007). Aspirations for older age in the 21st century: What is successful ag-ing? Int J Aging Hum Dev, 64 (3): 263-97.
16. Foster L, Walker A (2015). Active and suc-cessful aging: A European policy per-spective. Gerontologist, 55(1):83-90.
17. Leitner MJ, Leitner SF (1996). Leisure en-hancement. 3rd ed. New York: Haworth Press.
18. Passmore A (2003). The occupation of lei-sure: Three typologies and their influence on mental health in adolescence. OTJR, 23(2):76-83.
19. Sirven N, Debrand T (2008). Social partici-pation and health aging: An international comparison using SHARE data. Soc Sci Med, 67 (12): 2017-26.
20. Thoits PA, Hewitt LN (2001). Volunteer work and well-being. J Health Soc Behav, 42 (2):115-31.
21. Strawbridge WJ, Wallhagen MI, Cohen RD (2002). Successful aging and well-being self-rated compared with Rowe and Kahn. Gerontologist, 42 (6): 727-33.
22. Wong PT (1989). Personal meaning and successful aging. Can Psychol, 30 (3): 516-25.
23. Clark D, Dellasega C (1998). Unmet health care needs: Comparison of rural and ur-ban senior center attendees. J Gerontol Nurs, 24 (12): 24-33.
24. Aquino JA, Russel DW, Cutrona CE et al (1996). Employment status, social sup-port, and life satisfaction among the el-derly. J Couns Psychol, 43 (4): 480-9.
25. Pavot W, Diener E (2008). The satisfaction with life scale and the emerging construct of life satisfaction. J Posit Psychol, 3(2):137-152.
26. Oerlemans WG, Bakker AB, Veenhoven R (2011). Finding the key to happy aging: A day reconstruction study of happiness. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci, 66 (6): 665-74.
27. Harahousou Y, Kabitsis C (2011). European models of leisure policies and physical ac-tivity programs for elderly people. World Leis J, 44 (1): 3-10.
28. Bazin F, Noise P, Dartigues GF et al (2012). Engagement in leisure activities and ben-zodiazepine use in a French community-dwelling elderly population. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry, 27 (7): 716-21.
29. Creswell JW (2008). Educational research: Plan-ning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
30. World Health Organization (2002). Defini-tion of an older or elderly person. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzer-land. www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/
31. Ministry of Health and Welfare (2018). Wel-fare of the Aged Act. Ministry of Health and Welfare, Seoul, Korea. www.law.go.kr/LSW/lsSc.do?tabMenuId=tab18&p1=&subMenu=1&nwYn=1&sec-tion=&tabNo=&query=%EB%85%B8%EC%9D%B8%EB%B3%B5%EC%A7%80%EB%B2%95#undefined
32. Keum C. (The) effect of physical self-concept on the psychological happiness of the elderly participation to the sport for all [thesis]. Yong In University, Yongin, Korea; 2010.
33. Ko D. (The) effect of physical fitness, exer-cise behavior and extent of exercise par-ticipation on healthy aging of the elderly: Focused on questionnaire of healthy ag-ing [dissertation]. Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea; 2007.
34. Field A (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publi-cations.
35. Nunnally JC, Bernstein IH (1994). Psychomet-ric theory. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
36. Mannell RC (2011). Leisure, health and well-being. World Leis J, 49 (3): 114-28.
37. North TC, McGullagh P, Tran ZV (1990). Effect of exercise on depression. Exerc Sport Sci Rev, 18: 379-415.
38. Henderson KA, Bialeschki MD (2005). Lei-sure and active lifestyles: Research reflec-tions. Leis Sci, 27(5)355-365.
39. Kobriger SL, Smith J, Hollman JH et al (2006). The contribution of golf to daily physical activity recommendations: How many steps does it take to complete a round of golf? Mayo Clin Proc, 81 (8): 1041-3.
40. OECD (2013). A good life in old age? https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/PolicyBrief-Good-Life-in-Old-Age.pdf
41. Korean Institute of Sport Science (2013). A study on the health promotion program of the elderly in foreign countries for the age of 100. https://www.sports.re.kr/pyxis-api/1/digital-files/46c49840-3975-4ba5-9045-0db99b87fc1b
42. Crosnoe R, Elder Jr GH (2002). Successful adaptation in the later years: A life course approach to aging. Soc Psychol Q, 65 (4): 309-328.
43. Chou KL, Chi I (2002). Successful aging among the young-old, old-old, and old-est-old Chinese. Int J Aging Hum Dev, 54 (1): 1-14.
44. Jones CJ, Rose DJ (2008). Physical activity in-troduction of older adults. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 49 No 3 (2020) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v49i3.3141 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Healthy aging Leisure Happiness South Korea | ||
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How to Cite
1.
BUM C-H, JOHNSON JA, CHOI C. Healthy Aging and Happiness in the Korean Elderly Based upon Leisure Activity Type. Iran J Public Health. 2020;49(3):454-462.
