Impacts of Leisure and Tourism on the Elderly’s Quality of Life in Intimacy: A Comparative Study in Japan

Abstract

Highly social activities like leisure and tourism are considered to have positive effects on the elderly’s mental health. Taking Japan as a case study, this research aims to clarify how leisure and tourism contribute to the elderly’s quality of life (QOL) in the domains of leisure and intimacy by comparing populated and depopulated areas. Such research has strong implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through healthy aging, but relevant efforts are quite limited. In this study, leisure and tourism behaviors are captured by visit frequency, travel party and expenditure. Quality of life is measured by happiness and life satisfaction in different life domains, in line with the life-oriented approach. Data were collected in 2014 via a nationwide online survey in Japan. Applying a structural equation model (SEM) approach, it is found that leisure behavior contributes to maintaining the elderly’s QOL in leisure life and intimacy domains. Tourism behavior only contributes to QOL in populated areas. Leisure activities strongly enhance QOL in terms of intimacy and improve the neighborhood relationship of the elderly in depopulated areas and family life in populated areas. Enriching daily leisure activities for the elderly would improve their intimate relationships in depopulated areas.

Between the Social and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability in Rural Areas—In Search of Farmers’ Quality of Life

“…We decided to use the structural equation modelling technique-a widely used method, but so far not (or very rarely) used for analysing farmers' life quality. Similar analyses were carried out on other social groups, for example, while analysing the impacts of leisure and tourism on the elderly's quality of life in Japan [155], assessing preferences among quality of life dimensions for the elderly (people aged from 65 to 94 years old) [156], or examining the relationships between authenticity, subjective happiness, and life satisfaction [157]. As we can see, SEM can be used mainly to analyse not the life quality level, but the relationships between the elements of this concept.…”

The Impact of Leisure Activities on the Mental Health of Older Adults: The Mediating Effect of Social Support and Perceived Stress

“…Leisure activities are an important part of the daily life of older adults and an important factor in maintaining the subjective well-being and life satisfaction of retired older adults [ 15 , 50 ]. This study shows that leisure activities have significant effects on social support, perceived stress.…”

“…As an important part of the life of older adults, leisure activities are an important factor affecting the health and quality of life of older adults. How to improve the level of participation in leisure activities has also become an important issue to be addressed [ 15 ]. Older adults can gain social support, a sense of belonging, fulfillment, and achievement when they participate in leisure activities [ 16 ].…”

Políticas públicas para el adulto mayor en época de pandemia por COVID- 19

“…La calidad de vida consta de múltiples aspectos cotidianos, entre los cuales se puede mencionar algunas actividades tales como ocio, vecindario y vida familiar que ocupan la mayor parte de la vida de las personas mayores después de la jubilación. Con tiempo discrecional e ingresos disponibles, las personas mayores están más dispuestas a participar en actividades de ocio y turismo, y el ámbito de la vida de ocio de las personas mayores se convierte en el conducto principal para actividades sociales (Zhang & Zhang, 2018)this research aims to clarify how leisure and tourism contribute to the elderly's quality of life (QOL. Por lo descrito, en los resultados de la presente investigación se identificó que el 100% no conto con ningún apoyo para actividades de ocio, como se observa en la Tabla 8.…”

“…La calidad de vida se utiliza a menudo como un conjunto de indicadores integrales para medir la situación de las personas. Es una interacción dinámica entre las condiciones externas de la vida de un individuo y la percepción interna de esas condiciones (Zhang & Zhang, 2018)this research aims to clarify how leisure and tourism contribute to the elderly's quality of life (QOL. En función a la respuesta del adulto mayor, se obtuvo que el 61% tiene una mala calidad de vida, el 24% considera que es regular y el 14% describió que es buena (Tabla 9); sin embargo, es necesario considerar a los adultos mayores con un nivel bajo.…”