Activities of Seniors in Large Towns: Health, Space and Subjective Quality of Life

The article presents an analysis of selected activities engaged in by seniors in the central areas of large Czech towns. The authors set out from the assumption that activities are a factor that animate the physical environment and, together with the actual quality of the physical environment, importantly contribute to the quality of life of seniors. The authors illustrate this on the basis of a sample survey conducted among seniors over the age of sixty living in fourteen large towns around the Czech Republic. The analysis shows that through the activities they engage in seniors are active participants in the rural environment. However, the intensity and variability of individual types of activities as determined by a factor analysis are mainly influenced by increasing health limitations, which have the biggest impact on reducing the activity of seniors. The survey also confirmed that the physical environment influences the activity of seniors, but much less so than the authors expected. Employment and leisure-time activities in particular are influenced by numerous other factors that are related more to the lifestyle of the individual and by extension to the individual's cultural and social capital. The authors close the discussion with recommendations for further research on the activities of seniors in towns as an important contribution to urban economies. Reprinted by permission of the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic