title: The pleasurable recreational activities among community-dwelling older adults.
abstract: This study aimed to clarify what pleasurable recreational activities older adults like to participate in, and to investigate the relationship between those activities and quality of life (QOL). Questionnaires were delivered to older residents (65 years and above) in a Japanese rural area. The residents' background information, the amount of pleasure for various activities, and the QOL were surveyed. The QOL was evaluated by the revised Philadelphia Geriatric Center (PGC) morale scale. The amount of pleasure taken in a majority of the activities, such as conversation with family or neighbors showed a significant association with the happiness score, but only a few activities showed significant association between the revised PGC morale scale and the amount of pleasure. The multiple regression analyses indicated that the amount of pleasure in exercise, the difficulty in managing finances, and amount of pleasure taken in watching TV were significant variables for predicting the happiness score. The results indicated that the amount of pleasure older adults experienced when engaging in activities such as conversation with family or neighbors showed significant association with the older adults' happiness. These results may be helpful in understanding contributions of various activities to the perception of pleasure in older adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsuruma-Cho, Showa-Ku, Nagoya, Aichi 466-8550, Japan. j-onishi@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Joji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Onishi
authors.forename: Yuichiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Tadao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gotoh
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Akihisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iguchi
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000369:Aged, 80 and over / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015444:Exercise; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D051639:Gardening; D006240:Happiness; D006686:Hobbies; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007899:Leisure Activities / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014195:Travel; D016138:Walking