Social support is an important aspect in the daily activities of the elderly [5]. It incorporates several important concepts including emotional concern, instrumental aid, access to information, and appraisal [6], which can be obtained through formal (e.g. public institutions) or informal (e.g. family, friends and neighbors) sources.

Definitions of social support fall into two categories which are the objective and subjective perception of social support. Objective social support indicates what people have actually received or report to have received [7]. While, subjective perception refers to individual’s beliefs about the available support, and is more persistently and powerfully related to health and well being [7].

A study conducted by Baltes and colleagues in 2001 showed that social interactions decrease with aging [8], which frequently related to critical events and loss of opportunities commonly take place during ageing process, such as retirement and loss of loved ones. The social support, either perceived or received by the elderly is playing an important role in the everyday life of the elderly, including influencing their leisure participation. A good social support and relationship is an important element in leisure experience [9].

Since this aspect has never been explored among the increasing Malaysian elderly, such study is a necessity. The results obtained should be utilized in the development and planning of elderly related programs. This paper aims to report part of the findings from a study on factors influencing leisure participation among elderly in Selangor, Malaysia and the association between their participation and quality of life.

Data for this cross-sectional study was collected in eight health clinics in 4 districts in Selangor, namely Petaling, Klang, Hulu Langat and Kuala Langat. The districts were purposively selected based on the highest proportion of older people from the urban and rural localities in Selangor for the year 2009.

Elderly population aged 60 years and above who came to the designated health clinics was selected purposively. Only elderly with normal score for cognitive function and depression were included. These were measured using the Elderly Cognitive Assessment Questionnaire (ECAQ) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). A total of 335 elderly people were screened initially. But only 268 people were found to have normal cognitive function and depression scale.

A standardized pre-tested questionnaire was used to identify the sociodemographic factors of respondents. Two mainly involved questionnaires were the Leisure Participation Questionnaire (LPQ) and the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire by Prociano and Heller (1983), which consist of 2 scales, Family Scale (PSS-Fa) and Friend Scale (PSS-Fr). The LPQ, which is a 6-point Likert-scale questionnaire containing 25 activities to measure leisure participation was specifically developed for the purpose of this study. The standardized Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient values obtained were ranging between 0.504 and 0.609 for each category of leisure activities. Activities were categorized into four categories, namely recreational (physical), cognitive, social and productive activity. Most of the definitions used for each category are based from a study done by Cheung et al. [10]. Recreational activity refers to physical form of recreational activity such as walking, running, cycling and any form of sports. Meanwhile, cognitive activity refers to activity that involves active information processing as a central component. Social activity refers to activity that promotes interpersonal interactions, developed social identity and regulated emotions. Productive activity involves organizing and performing the required tasks, providing services, or generating products. The scale of frequency used for each activity were everyday (5), almost everyday (4), once a week (3), once a month (2), once in few month (1) and never (0). Perceived social support was measured using the Perceived Social Support-Family Scale (PSS-Fa)” and Friend Scale (PSS-Fr) by Prociano and Heller [11], which has been translated into Malay by Norhafiza [12].

Descriptive statistics were performed on all variables. Pearson’s correlation and linear regression analyses were performed to assess the association between different categories of leisure activities and perceived social support. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0. Data for perceived social support was presented as continuous data for correlation analysis and categorical data for regression analysis. The level of significance was set at 0.05.

This study showed that social activity was the most frequently done leisure activities among the elderly. Having conversations while relaxing which was done with family members or friends had the highest daily percentage compared to other activities. A similar form of activity which involves social interaction among elderly was also studied by Silverstein and Parker [13] and Triado et al. [14]. Triado et al. [14] reported that 43.5% of the rural elderly in Spain spent time talking with others in an ideal day. The elderly also allocated less time to passive activities such as watching TV or resting in the ideal day, and spent more time socializing [14].

Social interaction with friends was also the most common activity performed by the very old elderly in Sweden [13]. Although it is passive and sedentary in nature, various benefits can be gained from social activities, even if only involves a simple informal social interactions or conversations. A critical review by Adams et al. [15] had suggested that an informal social interaction was the most evident activities affecting the well-being of an individual.

This study also showed that watching television (TV) was the second most common leisure activity among elderly. Similarly, a study by Cheung et al. [10] also found watching TV was the most prevalent leisure activity among community-dwelling elders in Hong Kong. Furthermore, it was reported as a major sedentary behavior in the United States [16]. ^{The high level of involvement in watching TV among elderly is likely due to the availability of television in most households nowadays. Despite the benefits gained from this activity in stimulating the cognitive function and social interaction involve if it is done in a group, the sedentary nature of watching TV has been reported to link with several health risks. There is no doubt that different activities provide different benefits to the elderly [17]. However, they should be encouraged to adopt a more active and diverse leisure participation. Those who participated in various and more physical activities reported a better physical well-being [9].}

Meanwhile, the high percentage of elderly spending time with their grandchildren is likely related to the rising of child care costs and increasing number of working parents. This situation indirectly increases the burden of the elders as well as preventing them from participating in certain type of leisure activities.

The low involvement in using computer is probably related to the low educational level among most of the respondents. A study done by Hisham [18] found that there is a correlation between education level and computer usage and also between the level of confidence and computer performance among elderly people in Malaysia. She also suggested that, the use of internet among senior elderly users (65 and older) is likely to increase in next decade.

Other than that, their involvement into activities that provide source of income, such as gardening and perception that productive activities such as gardening or domestic work which is also physical in nature and is comparable to exercise may also contribute to the low participation level in physical activities during leisure among the respondents. However, the cultural lifestyle of the multi-racial communities in Malaysia may have also significantly influenced the pattern of leisure activity among them.

The findings of this study also highlight the importance of social support received by the elderly, especially from friends in shaping their leisure activities. Elderly who perceived that they received higher social support from friends were more likely to involve in all four different categories of leisure activities. The higher social support received from family members by most respondents in this study was only significantly influenced their participation into social activities, which was reflected by the highest participation level into having conversations while relaxing activity. However, in view of the possibility of the existence of a two-way relationship between social support and leisure, a longitudinal study may be beneficial to demonstrate the causal relationship between them.

A study done in the United States also reported that support from friends was an important factor that influenced leisure participation [9]. However, in contrast they found social support received from family members play a more important role than those received from friends [9].

The association between social support and physical activity has been reported in several studies. A study by Kuhiranyaratn et al. [19] among elderly in Thailand suggested that, there is a significant association between social supports and exercising among the elderly population living in the rural area, with social support received from friends was a stronger predictor. Exercise level among the rural elderly was increased with increasing social support received from friends.

A study done among elderly in Brazil also demonstrated a strong relationship between social interaction and physical activity [8]. In contrast they also found that majority of the elderly received higher social support from friends compared to from family members [8]. The frequency and types of physical activities performed were also linked with social support. According to Saint Onge [6], both the amount of exercise and the types of physical activities are likely to be associated with social support and social network.

The significant association between social support and physical activity may explain the low participation level of respondents in this study in recreational (physical) activity since less than half of the respondents reported they received high social support from friends. Whereas, the higher social support received from the family members will only influence their participation into social activities.

This study also found that social support received from friends was also a significant predictor for cognitive activity. A similar finding was reported by Yeh and Liu [5] among Taiwanese elderly. They found that elderly who obtained higher score for cognitive function from doing cognitive activities received strong social support, as measured by marital status and positive social support from friends.