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Aging Well: Time Use Patterns of Older Canadians

89-622-XWE
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What does aging well mean?

The preceding section provides an illustration of the activities of older adults and how their patterns of engagement differ across age groups and gender, and over time. However, aging well is not just about levels of engagement. Older Canadians who age well are able to find a balance or fit between their current level of activities, and their life situations and resources. Individuals' level of activity, intensity of engagement, and type of activity are directly related to their health status (Atchley, 1989; Baltes and Baltes, 1990). The ideal balance of these relationships likely will differ for women and men, and for younger and older seniors. These age and gender differences may be due to the fact that societal expectations are different for men and women. The result is that women and men will likely make sense of changing resources relative to later-life changes by adjusting their activity patterns in different ways.

How healthy are Canadians?

Health levels change throughout the life course and differ between individuals. Data from across the life course are examined for comparative purposes. These findings illustrate the obvious, that younger Canadians are more likely to rate themselves as having excellent or very good health as compared to older Canadians and that health status declines with age. These patterns do not differ significantly between men and women. About 55 to 60% of the youngest cohort aged 15 to 24 rate their health as very good or excellent and this proportion declines to 30 to 35% for those aged 75 and over years. Changing health status is one of the many factors older adults are continually adapting to as they age. For the oldest this is a pattern of declining health and increasing frailty. Does their level of life satisfaction decline with age as well?

See Chart on Percentage of Canadians reporting excellent or very good health.

How satisfied are Canadians with their lives?

Canadians were asked to indicate their overall level of satisfaction with their lives; the respondents' answers vary by gender and across the life span. Data from across the life course are examined for comparative purposes. Overall, women have a higher level of satisfaction than men across all age groups. Interestingly both men and women experience their lowest level of life satisfaction during mid-life. This is understandable given this is the age when Canadians spend large amounts of time at work, advancing their careers, while trying to juggle the demands of the household, children, and personal activities. By age 45 to 54, women (30%) were more satisfied with life. However, for men, this is the time of life at which the smallest proportion (24%) indicated they were satisfied with their lives. Older Canadians had a much stronger sense of life satisfaction. As they approached retirement they began to recognize their achievements and see the value of their life's work. As their children left home they also began to experience more free time which they use to pursue their personal interests such as taking up a hobby. Canadian men over the age of 65 reported the highest level of life satisfaction (40%).

See Chart on Percentage of Canadians reporting high levels of life satisfaction.

The next section of the paper examines the relationship among activity patterns, health, and overall life satisfaction which proxies as measure of an individual's fit or balance between their activities and their resources. To examine these relationships, a typology using levels of health and life satisfaction was developed (see Methods).

First, the relationship between health and life satisfaction across later stages of life is examined. About 30% of women aged 55 to 64 felt satisfied with their life overall. This proportion increased in the older age groups with a high of 38% for the 65 to 74 year olds (see chart 15). Interestingly one third of these satisfied individuals indicated that they were not in very good health and this proportion increased with age to 57% for the oldest group of women. These proportions remained fairly stable for women over the age of 75 years. Conversely, there were a number of healthy women who were not satisfied with their lives overall. Approximately 28% of the women aged 55 to 64 were healthy but less satisfied with their life.

Chart 15. How healthy and satisfied are older Canadian women? A new browser window will open.

Chart 15. How healthy and satisfied are older Canadian women?

Chart 16. How healthy and satisfied are older Canadian men? A new window will open.

Chart 16. How healthy and satisfied are older Canadian men?

For men the story is slightly different, 30% of the men aged 55 to 64 were very satisfied with their life while a third of these satisfied men were in poorer health (see chart 16). The proportion of satisfied men was higher for the next age group at 38%. Just less than half of these men stated that they were in poorer health. The proportion of men who were satisfied with their life was similar at 36% for men over age 75 years with just over half of them indicating that they were in poorer health. Similar to the women there was a substantial proportion of the men (16 to 20% depending on their age), who were less healthy but satisfied with their lives. These results for both women and men illustrate that individuals do not require good health to be satisfied with their life, and that good health does not guarantee a high level of overall life satisfaction.


What roles do health and activity level play in aging well?

A common view is that those who are in good health have the potential to have more choices in their daily activities and thus a greater chance of finding the best fit of activities for their given level of resources. Consequently they would be more likely to feel satisfied with their lives; that is, to age well. However, the above results suggest the relationship between health and life satisfaction is not straightforward. In this next section Canadians' choices about their levels of engagement are investigated by studying the relationships among activity patterns, health, and life satisfaction.

Tables 2-7 show patterns of time spent in the activity categories by different levels of health and life satisfaction in order to better understand the fit between patterns of activities and resources. Since health is an important resource in later life, it is used here. The activities include: paid work, unpaid work, passive leisure, active leisure (social, physical and cognitive activities), and self care. Patterns of engagement are examined for age groups before and after retirement, specifically Canadians aged 55 years and older, to gain a better understanding of the role paid work plays in life satisfaction and aging well in later life.

Table 2. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for men aged 55 to 64. A new browser window will open.

Table 2.Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for men aged 55 to 64

Table 3. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for women aged 55 to 64. A new browser window will open.

Table 3. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for women aged 55 to 64

Table 4. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for men aged 65 to 74. A new browser window will open.

Table 4. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for men aged 65 to 74

Table 5. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for women aged 65 to 74. A new browser window will open.

Table 5. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for women aged 65 to 74

Table 6. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for men aged 75 and over. A new browser window will open.

Table 6. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for men aged 75 and over

Table 7. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for women aged 75 and over. A new browser window will open.

Table 7. Time use patterns by health and life satisfaction for women aged 75 and over

Healthy older Canadians spend more time in paid work

When time use patterns in paid work are examined by health and life satisfaction the general patterns identified above still hold. Women younger than 65 years spent less time in paid work than their male counterparts. Of note, healthy men and women who were satisfied overall with their life spent slightly less time in paid work and had more balance in work activities and their other activities than those less satisfied. For both men and women healthy individuals spent more time in paid work. Few men and women worked after the age of 65.

More unpaid work is done by healthy older Canadians

Overall, time spent on unpaid work by women and men aged 65 to 74 years was greater than the time spent by either their younger or older counterparts. However, within each age group the amount of time spent in unpaid work did not vary substantially by levels of life satisfaction. Healthy individuals spent significantly more time in unpaid work than the less healthy in most age groups.

Leisure activities

Less healthy older Canadians spend more time on passive leisure

Older Canadians spent more time on passive leisure after the age 65. Healthy pre-retirement women (younger than 65 years), and pre and post retirement men spent less time in passive leisure than their less healthy counterparts. However, for women over age 65, only the less healthy and less satisfied spent more time in passive leisure compared to healthy women in the same age group. For those 75 years and older there were no differences in amount of time spent in passive leisure regardless of level of health or life satisfaction.

Active leisure may be correlated with aging well

Active leisure increased for all respondents over the age of 65 years and remained at the same level for the majority of the respondents in the oldest age group. The exception to this pattern is that the oldest healthy satisfied women spent even more time in active leisure than their younger counterparts.

For the most part, healthy satisfied older adults spent the most time on active leisure compared to the less healthy, less satisfied who spent the least amount of time. Differences ranged from ¾ to 1 hour more a day. This pattern was consistent across the later life course, and for both men and women. Active leisure is comprised of cognitive, social and physical activities. Each of these activities contributes to aging well in different ways. The combination of these activities is likely to vary for men and women of different ages with various health resources.

Cognitive leisure

Women 55 years and older spent more time on cognitive leisure as they aged regardless of their level of health or life satisfaction. In contrast older groups of men spent more time in cognitive leisure than the younger age groups. However, for men in the oldest age group, the amount of time spent on cognitive leisure activities was slightly lower for satisfied men.

Healthy satisfied women spent the most time on cognitive leisure activities across the older life course. For the two younger age groups of men a similar pattern is found. However there were no real differences in the time spent on cognitive activities among men 75 years and older, by health and satisfaction.

Social leisure

Even though researchers have suggested that having strong social connections have been found to play a significant role in aging well (Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Myers and Diener, 1995; Ryan and Deci, 2000), no clear patterns were found across the life span or across levels of health status and satisfaction for either men or women. These results suggest that time spent in social activities may not be an adequate measure of the strength of social connections. In fact, important social connections can occur in a variety of settings while performing different types of activities. For example, relationships often develop at work, through volunteer commitments or through team sports.

Physical leisure

In general, healthy men and women spent more time on physical activities. The youngest and oldest age groups of healthy women who were more satisfied overall with their lives were more physically active. In contrast, for the 65 to 74 year olds it was healthy women who were less satisfied with their lives who spent the most time in physical activities. For healthy men under the age of 75 years the level of activity did not differ by level of satisfaction. This suggests that health and physical activity are key correlates but there is no clear relationship between physical activity and level of satisfaction.

Conclusion

The analysis of time use data gives us a better understanding of the relationship between aging well (measured here as life satisfaction), level of health resources and activity patterns of older Canadians.

Some individuals remain engaged in the labour force late in life while others retire early. When the patterns of time use are compared across age groups it is clear that as individuals retired from employment they reallocated time once spent in paid work to other activities of unpaid work, leisure and self care. Also apparent from these findings is that older Canadians remained engaged in a wide variety of activities well into later life . However, these patterns are not consistent over time. Over the past fourteen years, time use patterns of older Canadians have shifted. In 2005, more Canadians 55 to 74 years old were engaged in the labour force, were working later in life and spending less time in leisure activities compared to 1998 and 1992.

Further exploration of the time use patterns by health and life satisfaction confirmed that there is no optimal set of activities for everyone. In fact, health status has a significant influence on time spent in a range of activities. Healthy individuals spent more on paid work, unpaid work and active leisure. Generally, the fit or balance of activities for healthy, satisfied women included less time on paid work for working age women than their healthy, less satisfied counterparts and more time on active leisure like cognitive and physical activities. For healthy, satisfied men there was no consistent set of activities across the age groups. Less healthy and less satisfied men and women for all age groups consistently spent the most time on passive leisure.

NOTE:

This study is based on the time use information collected in 2005 in Cycle 19 of the General Social Survey (GSS).

Time use estimates in this report are based on the information reported in the one-day time use diary portion of the survey. The diary provides a comprehensive accounting of participation in, and time spent on, a wide variety of day-to-day activities. In addition, information was collected on the location where these activities occurred (e.g., at home, at work, etc.) and the social contacts (for non-personal care activities), i.e., who the respondent was with - spouse, children, family, friends. The questionnaire collected additional information on perception of time, time spent on child care and other unpaid work, paid work and education, cultural and sport activities, social networks and trust, transportation as well as many socio-economic characteristics.

The target population included all people aged 15 and over, except full-time residents of institutions and residents of the Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Data was collected each month from January 2005 to December 2005 using a computer-assisted telephone interview system. Over this period, a total of 19,600 people were successfully interviewed, yielding a response rate of 59%.

This survey was previously conducted in 1998, 1992 and 1986.


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