ABSTRACT
Recently, there has been considerable research interest in the leisure patterns of the elderly. This research has contributed to much knowledge about how old people use their discretionary time in later life. It has been found that the leisure activities most frequently reported by elderly people are socializing with friends and relatives, watching television, gardening, reading newspapers, and sitting and thinking (Harris, 1975, 1981; Statistics Canada, 1978; Moss and Lawton, 1982). It has also been suggested that most of these activities take place indoors and they tend to be home-based more than community-based (McPherson, 1983). This indicates that, in general, the leisure activities of the elderly tend to be informal and individual rather than formal and group-oriented in that they are not primarily related to organized activity.
