Abstract:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world in the current century, social relations were reviewed, curfews were imposed for certain age groups, and face to face communication and collective behaviors were questioned, and what to do or not to do is the most discussed group, undoubtedly, there have been individuals over the age of 65. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between leisure activity types and life satisfaction and health perception in individuals over sixty years old. The population of the study consists of individuals aged sixty and over living in Mersin. A total of 391 volunteers were selected from this population using a purposive sampling method. As a data collection tool in research Life Satisfaction Scale and Health Perception Scale was used in this research. To determine the frequency of participation of the participants in the leisure activity types, a leisure activity type questionnaire including six different activity types was used. Spearman Correlation Analysis Technique was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between life satisfaction, health perception and leisure time interest and the error margin was taken as 0,05 for all analyzes. As a result of the analysis While the leisure activity types preferred by the elderly are “home-centered social activities” and “cultural and entertainment activities”, the least preferred activity is “physical activities” and “volunteering and social responsibility activities”. The highest relationship between life satisfaction and leisure activity type in elderly men is between volunteering and social responsibility activities (r = 0.206), while it is between cultural and recreational activities (r = 0.286) for elderly women. Leisure activity, which has the highest relationship with perception of health, was found to be hobbies and indoor activities in both women (r = 0.413) and men (r = 0.418).

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