Productive activities of the older people in Vietnam

Abstract

Productive activities are crucial factors leading to an “active aging” population. With the case of Vietnam, this paper aimed to explore the productive activities among Vietnamese older people by using data from the Vietnam Aging Survey (VNAS), which was conducted in 2011 as the first-ever nationally representative survey on persons aged 50 and over in Vietnam and contained 2789 older people (those aged 60 and over) representing all older people living in 6 ecological regions and urban and rural areas in Vietnam. Productive activities included working and/or taking care of any (great)grandchild(ren) in the past 12 months prior to the survey. Using paired t-tests and probit models, we compared the differences in these productive activities among older people in terms of sex and living area. The results from various t-tests showed that educational attainment, health status and poverty status were key factors differentiating older men and women and rural and urban older people in these productive activities. For the probit estimations in terms of both gender and living location, the results indicated that age, education, health status and supportive children were determinants of working decision, while age, marital status and size of household were consistently important factors of taking care of (great)grandchildren. The paper also discussed policy implications for socio-economic and health protection in promoting older people's productive activities as well as protecting them from a variety of risks and vulnerabilities.