Just Keeping Busy in Old Age Isn’t the Key to Actively Enjoying Life

Everyone knows or has heard of people in their 80s or 90s who live rich and fulfilling lives. And many of us know people in their 50s and 60s who do not. Some researchers believe that keeping busy is key to maintaining health and well-being into old age. But a researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that the reason for participating in an activity may be as important as the activity itself. In fact, activities that just pass the time may have a negative effect.

Reporting in the September issue of the Journal of Applied Gerontology, Kelly M. Everard, an instructor in the university’s Health Care Services Program, says that activity research often implies that older adults should keep busy while placing little emphasis on the reasons for participating in activities.

“I wanted to capture information on why people were doing what they were doing, and it was interesting to discover that those who were engaged in activities for social reasons were better off than those who did things just to pass the time,” Everard said.

She conducted the study for her doctoral dissertation at the University of Kentucky. A total of 249 subjects were selected from adult volunteers at that university’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. The research was supported by a predoctoral fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Satisfaction Versus Frequency

Previous studies had shown that the busier older people were, the better off they tended to be. So when gardeners did not feel they were doing well, older research might have suggested that they needed to garden more. But Everard did not find that.

“Gardening was a very striking example,” she said. “Most people did some gardening, but they did it for different reasons. One person just loved it and looked forward to it every year. Another said that gardening was necessary to keep the yard from looking bad. That person didn’t like to do it but felt he had to do it.”

In addition to gardening, study participants also listed exercise, family visits, going to church, camping, playing music, reading, and visiting the cemetery as activities, with the social activities tending to bring the most benefit.

Everard did not correlate the subjects’ self-reported ratings of well-being against actual physical data. But past studies consistently have shown that a personal rating of well-being is a very accurate measure of a person’s mental and physical health.

“I wanted to know how people thought they were doing,” she explained. “Other research has shown that when people rate their health for you, they give you a pretty good indication. Even when you look at physiologic measures--even future mortality--people who are doing well tend to report that their health is excellent, and usually it is.”

Those who said they did things simply to pass the time did not rate their well-being as high. Others who had problems included those whose activities were limited by medical conditions. People who had been sick or injured in the 12 months before the study and whose injury had made it difficult for them to participate in preferred activities tended to rate themselves as less well than those who had not been injured or sick. Also, the study found no relationship between well-being and total number of activities.

Enjoyment Is Key to Well-Being

While being able to participate in enjoyable activities was very important to well-being, Everard says the word “enjoyable” is key.

“We have this work ethic in our society, and some researchers have felt that being busy, working hard and working a lot are valuable, and that keeping busy is something we should strive to do as we get older,” she said. “Previous literature had shown that the more people did, the better off they were, but this study suggests that the frequency of activity doesn’t tell the whole story.”

The importance of enjoyment also may extend to other older adults. Although the people surveyed in this study still lived independently, Everard said that institutionalized adults and those in adult day care also might do better if they engage in activities they enjoy.

“It’s a pretty big jump between the two populations of older adults, but activity planners in nursing homes and adult day care centers need to think about what they are having people do,” Everard said. “If they can find things that residents want to do and learn what’s important to the people they’re working with, various activities might be beneficial. But that’s another study.”