Supplementary Material for: The Role of Leisure Activities in Mediating the Relationship between Physical Health and Well-Being: Differential Patterns in Old and Very Old Age

Background: Recently, Paggi et al. [Gerontology
2016;62:450-458] for the very first time showed in a cross-sectional
sample of 259 adults aged 18-81 years that the relation of physical
health to psychological well-being was mediated via frequency of leisure
activity participation. Objective: To extend this
framework, we followed theories on successful aging and vulnerability to
propose to add a differential perspective predicting that certain
individuals may be more vulnerable than others and therefore may show
differences in the mediation pattern. Specifically, we examined whether
mediation patterns were differential in certain populations, such as in
old-old (compared to young-old) adults and in individuals who carried
out a low (compared to those with a high) number of activities. Methods:
We analyzed data from 3,080 individuals on physical health (number of
chronic diseases, subjective health status, and subjective evaluation of
change in health over the last 10 years), frequency of participation in
18 leisure activities, and physical and psychological well-being using
moderated mediation models with a path model approach that allowed the
simultaneous estimation of all model paths, including their
significance. Results: We found that the relation of
physical health to physical and psychological well-being was mediated
via frequency of activity participation. For physical (but not for
psychological) well-being, this mediation was more pronounced in old-old
(compared to young-old) adults and in individuals who carried out a low
(compared to those with a high) number of activities. These moderated
mediations were attributable to differential relations of physical
health to frequency of activity participation and to differential
relations of frequency of activity participation to physical well-being
between the investigated moderator levels. Conclusion:
Present data suggest that participation in leisure activities may play a
key role in mediating the relationship between physical health and
well-being, particularly in very old age. Findings are discussed with
respect to theories of successful aging and differences between physical
and psychological well-being.