“You Make Me Feel so Young”: a Sequence Analysis of Time Use among Older Adults in France (1985–2010)

Federico Bietti , INED

This paper analyses how ageing, health limitations, and work transitions shape the daily routines of older adults in France over the past decades. Using the French Time Use Surveys (1985, 1999, 2010) and sequence analysis, it examines how people aged 60 and over allocate their time between work, domestic activities, care, rest, and social participation, distinguishing between individuals with chronic functional limitations and those without. This study treats these daily activities as states that follow one another throughout the day. It focuses on two populations: individuals with chronic functional limitations and those without a chronic condition. The analysis aims to identify clusters of sequences representing typical routines. These typical routines are then compared across the two populations to assess their similarities and differences. Finally, the study examines sociodemographic determinants to understand how sex, income level, education, and other factors are associated with different types of routines. Routines are assumed to reflect lifestyle patterns and serve as an expression of social class. However, the presence of functional limitations may alter this dynamic. Could limitations be more influential than social class in producing homogeneous routines among socially diverse individuals? Following decades of inclusion efforts, campaigns against ageism, and policies supporting autonomy, we expect to observe a reduced overlap between the routines of individuals living with limitations and those without over time. This also allows us to assess how perceptions of ageing and loss of autonomy have evolved over the past forty years in France.

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 Presented in Session P5. Health, Mortality, and Ageing 1