Old-age lifestyles: Patterns of participation in leisure activities and their associations with different forms of capital.

As an important dimension of lifestyle, participation in leisure activities can enhance people's quality of life. Thus, pursuing an engaged lifestyle has become an assumed requirement of ageing successfully. People's opportunities to pursue an engaged lifestyle are influenced by their social positions, which are defined by their access to economic, cultural, and social capital.

Discrepancies between subjective importance and actual everyday practice among very old adults and the consequences for autonomy.

Background: An individual's everyday practice in very old age is based on stable dispositions and on the living conditions associated with the person's stage of life. Age-associated changes in living conditions can cause discrepancies between the person's dispositions and actual everyday practice that have consequences for the quality of life.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to look more closely at such discrepancies and their associations with living conditions in very old age (long-term care needs, multimorbidity, care tasks) as well as with the feeling of autonomy as an aspect of quality of life.

Stereotypes about very old people and perceived societal appreciation in very old age.

Background: People in very old age (VOA) are expected to be confronted with particularly negative stereotypes. These influence societally shared behavior towards and judgements about them. Such external evaluations of individuals' lives are considered a crucial part of their quality of life (QoL).

Quality of life of the very old : Survey on quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW80+).

Background: In Germany, the very old are the most rapidly growing proportion of the population. A comprehensive investigation of the conditions for a good quality of life in this group is relevant for both society and politics.

Objective: The project "Quality of life and subjective well-being of the very old in North Rhine-Westphalia" (NRW80+) at the University of Cologne surveys quality of life of the very old.