PREFERENCES AND OBSTACLES OF FREE TIME ACTIVITIES OF THE ELDERLY

Existing researches and theoretical studies (e.g. Veteska, 2016; Spatenkova, Smekalova, 2015) show that actively spent elder age during which elderly do free time activities has positive effect on quality and length of life. Unfortunately some elderly can't attend all of the free time activities they would be interested in - not only because of time and place inaccessibility but also because of other reasons. Because of that a partial goal of our research was to discover which preferences do elderly have when choosing free time activities, and which obstacles prevent them from spending their free time actively in organized free time activities, organized or not. The research took place by qualitative approach where with the help of nonstandardized questionnaires was gathered data from 200 elderly (age 65+) respondents from Li-berecky and Ustecky regions. The results were statistically checked by Chi-Squared test (Mann-Whitney W test respectively) and the two regions were compared. The contribution describes partial results which show that the elderly prefer activities in nature the most, but also board games and memory practicing. The most common obstacles shown to be finances and health.