Daily leisure factor of life’s quality: what does a group of senior citizens think about?

Abstract

Senior Citizen is caracterized for biological, economic, cultural and social transformation that interfere in elderly life’s quality. Then, this descriptive-exploratory study had the aim, to identify the importance of daily leisure for senior citizens how factor related at their life’s quality. Utilized quantitative broach, data of the percentile statistic treatment and data were obtained from interviewing 55 elderly of both sexes at “Grupo Alegria de Viver” a Healthy Basic Unit, located in Natal / RN, in 2001. The results showed that 74,5% were stimulated to participate in leisure activities at the community where they lived; 87,2% stated that walking was important, but 40% of them didn’t practice; 41,8% felt solitary, so that 58,1% just passed the time at their leisure and 34,5% tried to escape from isolation. The elderly expressed preference for the following activities: to take part in groups, to listen to music, to watch TV, to travel, to care of the garden, walking, cooking and to play something.