What makes life enjoyable at an older age? Experiential wellbeing, daily activities, and satisfaction with life in general

Figures & data

Table 1. Objective characteristics of activities.

a. Activity type stacked according to frequency in the sample
	N	Percent
Unpaid work: housework, preparing food, repairs	310	17
Eating, drinking, snacking	270	15
Watching TV	195	11
Solitary games, hobbies, informal learning, reading	181	10
Passive leisure, resting, relaxation	151	8
Social life, conversations, celebrations	137	8
Walks, including walking a dog	91	5
Selfcare, washing, grooming	82	4
Shopping	67	4
Travel, getting ready to go out, coming back home	59	3
Paid work and related activities	45	2
Religious activities, prayers, mass attendance, and related	43	2
Outdoor work around the house, gardening	40	2
Pet and animal care	28	2
Childcare	27	1
Using medical services, medical appointments and related	26	1
Visiting a cemetery, grave care	18	1
Using personal and other services (except medical)	15	<1
Exercise, active leisure	14	<1
Adultcare	10	<1
Total	1809
b. Co-presence during activity
	N	Percent
Alone	963	53
With family member	690	38
With a friend/ acquaintance or someone else	154	9
Missing	2	<1
Total	1809

Table 2. Multilevel linear two-level models with activity enjoyment as outcome variable.

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
	Coef. (SE)	Coef. (SE)	Coef. (SE)
Sex (ref. male)
Female	0.29* (0.12)	0.19 (0.10)	0.18 (0.11)
Age	0.00 (0.01)	0.01 (0.01)	0.01 (0.01)
Health (ref. good)
Neither good nor bad	–0.12 (0.14)	–0.11 (0.12)	–0.10 (0.13)
Poor	–0.61** (0.21)	–.389* (0.18)	–0.45* (0.19)
Marital status (ref. single)
Married	–0.97** (0.31)	–0.79** (0.27)	–0.85** (.279)
Widowed	–0.96** (0.31)	–0.84** (0.27)	–0.91** (.281)
Divorced/Separated	–1.02** (0.38)	–0.98** (0.32)	–0.92** (.341)
Having children (ref. yes)
No	–0.24 (0.30)	–0.12 (0.26)	–0.13 (0.27)
Other (e.g. child died)	–0.53 (0.66)	–0.55 (0.57)	–0.92 (0.60)
Income (ref. enough only for essentials)
Enough for purchases beyond essential	–0.42** (0.13)	–0.29* (0.12)	–0.30* (0.12)
Area of residence (ref. rural)
Urban	–0.18 (0.12)	–0.17 (0.11)	–0.197 (0.11)
Activity (ref. eating)
Selfcare	–0.74*** (0.18)	–0.55*** (0.16)	–0.54*** (0.16)
Paid work	–0.58* (0.25)	–0.12 (0.24)	–0.06 (0.25)
Unpaid work/ housework	–0.812*** (0.12)	–0.46*** (0.12)	–0.44*** (0.12)
Shopping	–1.22*** (0.19)	–0.61*** (0.18)	–0.61*** (0.18)
Using services (non-med.)	–0.903* (0.37)	–0.03 (0.34)	–0.01 (0.35)
Using medical services	–1.74*** (0.29)	–0.99*** (0.28)	–1.00*** (0.28)
Pet and animal care	0.43 (0.28)	0.49 (0.26)	0.55* (0.26)
Childcare	0.97*** (0.29)	1.15*** (0.27)	1.09*** (0.27)
Adultcare	–2.37*** (0.49)	–2.00*** (0.46)	–2.02*** (0.50)
Religious activities	0.89*** (0.23)	0.72*** (0.21)	0.74*** (0.21)
Walks, walking the dog	0.40* (0.17)	0.60*** (0.16)	0.61*** (0.16)
Social life	0.66*** (0.15)	0.800*** (0.14)	0.81*** (0.14)
Passive leisure, rest	0.12 (0.14)	0.31* (0.13)	0.32* (0.13)
Games and hobbies	0.23 (0.14)	0.50*** (0.13)	0.51*** (0.12)
Watching TV	–0.30* (0.13)	0.04 (0.12)	0.06 (0.12)
Travel and related	–0.80*** (0.20)	–0.39* (0.19)	–0.38* (0.19)
Co-presence (ref. alone)
A family member	0.08 (0.09)	0.11 (0.08)	0.12 (0.08)
A friend/ acquaintance	0.32* (0.14)	0.39** (0.13)	0.42** (0.13)
Satisfaction with life	0.12* (0.05)	0.12** (0.04)	0.10* (0.05)
Effort		–0.50*** (0.00)	–0.52*** (0.09)
Effort squared		0.07*** (0.01)	0.08*** (0.01)
Importance		0.48*** (0.04)	0.48*** (0.04)
Stress		–0.28*** (0.03)	–0.27*** (0.03)
Intercept	5.84*** (0.83)	4.02*** (0.74)	4.35*** (0.78)
Variance (individual)	0.64 (0.05)	0.54 (0.04)	0.42 (0.09)
Effort			0.07 (0.04)
Importance			0.07 (0.03)
Stress			0.15 (0.03)
Bryk/Raudenbush Adj R2 (activities):	0.18	0.29	0.29
Bryk/Raudenbush Adj R2 (individuals)	0.33	0.53	0.53
ICC	0.19 (0.02)	0.16 (0.02)	0.12 (0.05)
Activities	1774	1763	1763
Individuals	199	199	199

Notes: The model controlled for all types of activities but only activities with significant effects were preserved in the model. Model 3 controls for individual-level variance in subjective activity characteristics. Standard errors in parentheses ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05.

Table 3. Individual-level covariates of satisfaction with life in general.

	Model 4	Model 5
	Coef. (SE)	Coef. (SE)
Individual’s characteristics
Sex (ref. male)
Female	0.02 (0.17)	0.01 (0.17)
Age	–0.01 (0.01)	–0.01 (0.01)
Health (ref. good)
Neither good nor bad	–0.52** (0.20)	–0.51** (0.20)
Poor	–1.40*** (0.29)	–1.36*** (0.29)
Marital status (ref. single)
Married	–0.13 (0.46)	–0.11 (0.46)
Widowed	–0.19 (0.45)	–0.20 (0.46)
Divorced or separated	0.09 (0.55)	0.04 (0.55)
Having children (ref. yes)
No children	–0.14 (0.42)	–0.12 (0.42)
Other, e.g. a child died	–1.53 (0.92)	–1.71 (0.93)
Income (ref. not enough or enough only for essentials)
Enough for purchases beyond essentials	0.17 (0.19)	0.21 (0.19)
Area of residence (ref. rural)
Urban	0.11 (0.18)	0.08 (0.18)
Aggregated activities’ characteristics
Mean activity enjoyment	0.33** (0.11)	0.27** (0.10)
Variance in activity enjoyment	0.10 (0.06)	0.08 (0.06)
Mean stress during activities	0.01 (0.14)	–0.01 (0.14)
Mean activity importance	–0.39* (0.17)	–
Mean effort	–0.10 (0.11)	–0.15 (0.12)
Number of episodes with reported co-presence	0.03 (0.04)	0.03 (0.04)
Variance in activity importance	–	0.32* (0.15)
Intercept	6.03*** (1.34)	4.75*** (1.29)
Adjusted R2	0.27	0.26
Individuals	199	199

Notes: Missing values are preserved to maintain the sample size, but not reported in the models. Standard errors in parentheses ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05.

Figure 1. Mean enjoyment, importance, and effort by activity. Activities are ranked by enjoyment level. Note: Error bars represent CI 95%.

Figure 2. Association between selected subjective characteristics of an activity. Note: Error bars represent CI 95%.