City's elderly less likely to volunteer
About 4 per cent of local elderly people do voluntary work, much less than in other economically developed places, a study has found.
The study, released yesterday, compared the lifestyles, social engagement and health status of the elderly in local and overseas research from recent years.
It said 3.6 per cent of Hongkongers aged at least 65 had been engaged in voluntary work in the 12 months preceding the study carried out by the city's Census and Statistics Department in 2001-02.
It was much lower than elderly people's participation rates in voluntary work in other places as shown in surveys overseas: 40 per cent in Australia in 2004; 32 per cent in England and Wales in 2001; 27 per cent in Japan in 2001; and 24 per cent in the United States in 2003.
Jean Woo, director of the Jockey Cub's Cadenza Project on ageing, said the low participation rate in Hong Kong could be partly because of a smaller variety of voluntary work to choose from.
'Voluntary work overseas is more diverse. For example, some may ask elderly volunteers to help look after schoolchildren and even tutor them,' she said.
Professor Woo said older local volunteers should be asked to do a range of meaningful work, and not be limited to visiting residents at care homes for the elderly or selling cookies for charities.
Cadenza is a project funded by the Jockey Club's Charities Trust to create an elderly-friendly community. The project involves Chinese University's medical faculty and the University of Hong Kong's social sciences faculty.
'Many elderly people still want to contribute to society after they retire. They will feel neglected if they make no contribution,' said Professor Woo.
She said some declined to do voluntary work probably because they found it boring and insignificant to the community.
Meanwhile, Cadenza also found that local elderly people ate less fruit than their counterparts in other places.
A survey carried out by the city's Department of Health and the University of Hong Kong in 2003-04 found that about 30 per cent of Hongkongers aged 65 or above ate at least two servings of fruit a day, meeting the government's recommendations. A serving of fruit roughly means an orange or apple.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed that in 2004-05, about 65 per cent of people aged 65 or older in Australia ate two or more servings of fruit a day.
In Singapore, about 34 per cent of people aged 60 to 69 ate at least two servings of fruit a day in 2004, according to the Health Promotion Board.
Healthy habit
Local elderly people are less likely to eat fruit than those abroad
While 65 per cent of Australians aged over 65 eat two or more serves of fruit a day, the proportion to do so here is: 30%
