Department of Prevention and Evaluation, Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology - BIPS, Germany, Unit Social Epidemiology, Achterstrasse 30, D-28359, Bremen, Germany.
Health Sciences Bremen, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Jan 11;18(1):110. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4979-z.
After retirement, elderly men and women allocate more time to housework activities, compared to working-age adults. Nonetheless, sleep constitutes the lengthiest time use activity among the elderly, but there has not been any study on the associations between time spent on housework activities, sleep duration and self-reported health among the older population. This study not only examined individual associations between self-reported health and both housework activities and sleep duration, but it also explored self-reported health by the interaction effect between housework activities and sleep duration separately for men and women.
Pooled data from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) on 15,333 men and 20,907 women from Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, France, the Netherlands and the US were analysed. Multiple binary logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between three broad categories of housework activities ((1) cooking, cleaning and shopping, (2) gardening and maintenance; (3) childcare) and health. We further investigated the extent to which total housework hours and sleep duration were associated with self-reported health for men and women separately.
We found a positive association between time devoted to housework activities, total housework and health status among elderly men and women. Compared to those who spent 1 to 3 h on total productive housework, elderly people who spent >3 to 6 h/day had higher odds of reporting good health (OR = 1.25; 95% CI = 1.14-1.37 among men and OR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.01-1.20 among women). Both short (<7 h) and long (>8 h) sleep duration were negatively associated with health for both genders. However, the interactive associations between total productive housework, sleep duration, and self-reported health varied among men and women. Among women, long hours of housework combined with either short or long sleep was negatively associated with health.
Although time allocation to housework activities may be beneficial to the health among both genders, elderly women have higher odds of reporting poor health when more time is devoted total housework combined with either short or long sleep duration.
老年人退休后，与劳动年龄成年人相比，他们会将更多的时间用于家务活动。然而，在老年人中，睡眠是时间最长的活动，但还没有任何研究关注家务活动时间、睡眠时间与老年人自评健康之间的关系。本研究不仅检查了自评健康与家务活动和睡眠时间之间的个体关联，还分别探讨了男性和女性中家务活动与睡眠时间之间的交互作用对自评健康的影响。
使用来自德国、意大利、西班牙、英国、法国、荷兰和美国的多国时间使用研究（MTUS）中 15333 名男性和 20907 名女性的汇总数据进行分析。使用多项二项逻辑回归模型来检验三大类家务活动（1）烹饪、清洁和购物；（2）园艺和维护；（3）儿童保育）与健康之间的关联。我们进一步调查了男性和女性的总家务时间和睡眠时间与自评健康之间的关联程度。
我们发现，对于老年男性和女性，投入家务活动的时间与总家务时间和健康状况呈正相关。与每天花费 1 到 3 小时从事生产性家务的人相比，每天花费>3 到 6 小时的老年人报告健康状况良好的几率更高（男性 OR=1.25；95%CI=1.14-1.37；女性 OR=1.10；95%CI=1.01-1.20）。无论是短（<7 小时）还是长（>8 小时）的睡眠时间都与两性的健康呈负相关。然而，总生产性家务、睡眠时间与自评健康之间的交互关联在男性和女性中有所不同。对于女性，长时间的家务劳动加上短或长的睡眠时间与健康状况不佳呈负相关。
虽然家务活动时间的分配可能对两性的健康都有益，但当老年人将更多的时间用于家务劳动，再加上睡眠时间短或长时，她们报告健康状况不佳的几率更高。
