Abstract
BackgroundAfter 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.MethodsPooled 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.ResultsWe 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.ConclusionsAlthough 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.
Highlights
After retirement, elderly men and women allocate more time to housework activities, compared to working-age adults
This study explored the individual association between housework activities, sleep duration and self-reported health, and examined the combined associations of total housework and sleep duration on selfreported health among elderly men and women in selected
Sleep hours and health gender inequality in time allocation to housework activities exists [15, 16], we found that time devoted to the three broad categories of housework activities were positively associated with health among elderly women and men
Summary
Elderly men and women allocate more time to housework activities, compared to working-age adults. It has been suggested that this inequitable division of housework is one of the factors that contribute to the observed adverse health differences among men and women including psychological distress [19] and depressive symptoms [20]. These adverse health outcomes are stronger for women than men in their prime working age [21]. The gendered distribution of housework seems to be correlated with low psychological well-being and poor health among women, there is some evidence that suggests housework may have a positive impact on physical health among elderly men and women [14, 22]
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