Factors Influencing the Locational Context of Old People's Activities

Abstract

Individual characteristics and environmental constraints were assessed as influences of where old people usually carry out their daily activities. Data were obtained from structured interviews given to a random sample of 400 persons aged 60 and older living in a middle-class urban community. Respondents selected from 4 possible locations (dwelling, neighborhood, community, outside community) to identify where they usually pursued 13 different activities. Multiple regression analyses revealed that old people who pursued their activities outside their proximate residential environment were more likely to be white, separated-divorced, Jewish, employed, had fewer hearing difficulties, had less likely experienced a decline in health, and had available to them more flexible means of transportation. Results had implications for interpreting the effects of old age and environment on the voluntariness of activity patterns.