Senior women and men spend their time in different ways 2

Senior men are more likely to participate in outdoor activities than senior women (30% versus 10%). When senior men do outdoor work, they spend more than one extra hour (an additional 67 minutes) on it than senior women.

In addition to taking unpaid household work into account, it is also important to examine other types of activities such as leisure and recreational pursuits and television watching. Various types of leisure activities have different implications for well-being and ageing. For example, some activities can help maintain physical and social capabilities and promote health, while others are less beneficial as they are more sedentary and can be more socially isolating. Activities such as socializing and communicating; volunteering; walking; exercising; participating in organized sports; attending cultural events; pursuing hobbies; writing letters, books and poems; and using technology such as the Internet engage seniors. Passive leisure activities, on the other hand, refer to unstructured or passive forms of activity. These include watching television, listening to music and reading.

For active pursuits, senior men were more likely to engage in leisure and physical activities (44% versus 39%) while senior women were more likely to participate in socializing and communicating (46% versus 37%). For passive leisure activities, senior women were more likely to read (41% versus 35%) while senior men were more likely to watch television (87% versus 82%).

Although senior men and senior women may participate in different activities, the amount of time they spend on these activities is not significantly different. The only exception is watching television as senior women spend less time, on average, on this activity (3.9 hours versus 4.2 hours per day).