Abstract
One of the basic gerontological questions is the quality of life in the "retirement age". Older adults in the 3rd age, who do not have serious disabilities, chronic lifestyle diseases, fragility, dementia and lack of self-sufficiency (as typically in the later, 4th age), are characterized by diverse interests and activities, which usually exceed the threshold of their own household or family.
Content-diverse activities of a physical, mental and social nature are one of the key factors in a long life in health and well-being. According to the beneficiary domains, older people's activities can be divided into a) viscerogenic and everyday self-service activities, b) focused on the family and household, c) gainful activities and hobbies implemented individually and/or together with other people, and d) activities with a direct public impact on the social environment: a community of interest, municipality or the whole society.
From this we can derive three so-called ideal types (by Max Weber) of older people: "consumers" whose main interest is to take care for the household, close family and hobbies run at home, "hobbiers" who have broader interests, diverse hobbies outside the household and often in a group of peers (accomplishing the image of "active ageing"), and "the engaged" who additionally carry out activities for the benefit of a municipality, community of interest or society. Older people develop a personal coping strategy that reacts to their own age and ageing.
Typologically, at least two basic strategies can be distinguished. A positively oriented, offensive strategy is mostly based on anticipating the ageing and aims to improve or maintain the functionality and physical, mental and social capacity of a person.
A survey (with 3207 respondents aged 60+), which, however, does not represent the senior population of the third age well, has showed a frequency of various activities of people as far as their households, hobbies and the public benefit.