[Social activities in the elderly].
In order to clarify the status of social activities in the elderly, and to investigate an association between social activities and age, ADL, and geographical area, a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on the aged population in four areas in Japan. Social activities was defined as "activities which required contact with society" and was measured by 4 major facets of social activity, which were based on 21 questions on job activity, socially-related activities, learning activities, and personal activities. A total index was also developed by summarizing the 4 major facets as an indicator of whether the elderly is socially active or not as a whole. The following major findings emerged from this survey: (1) Rank correlation coefficients between each item which comprised 4 major activities were relatively high; (2) Excluding two activities, "shopping" and "attending senior school", aged men were more actively involved than women; (3) Trend in degrees of social activities differed by age among the 4 major facets, i.e., (a) job activity decreased with age, (b) socially-related activities and learning activities increased up to about 75 years old, and decreased thereafter, (c) personal activities were unaltered up to about 80 years old, and then decreased, and; (4) The elderly with low ADL had the lowest representation among the "highly active" in 4 major facets and total index as well.
Tamakoshi
A
A
Department of Preventive Medicine, Nagoya University, School of Medicine.
Aoki
R
R
Ohno
Y
Y
Hashimoto
S
S
Shimizu
H
H
Ikari
A
A
Sakata
K
K
Kawamura
T
T
Wakai
K
K
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires