Abstract
Activity participation is essential to the wellbeing of aging adults. Divergent levels of activity participation within aging populations have been explained from diverse perspectives, but the interaction effects of key determinants, such as personality and health, are often ignored. This study examines the effects of extravert personality on aging adults’ activity levels by addressing its interaction with physical health and mental health. A sample of 304 adults aged 50 and older was systematically selected from participants of local active aging programs in Hong Kong. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, physical and mental health, extraversion personality trait, and level of activity participation were collected using a telephone survey. Most participants (46.7%) reported a medium level of activity and over a quarter (26.6%) reported high or low activity levels. Multi-nominal logistic regression analyses show that extraversion was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting medium (OR = 1.85, p = .036) but not high (p > .05) activity levels, with low activity levels being the constant comparison, when adjusted for physical and mental health and socio-demographics. The interaction effect of extraversion and physical health was significant in predicting both medium (OR = 1.17, p < .001) and high (OR = 1.22, p < .001) activity levels. The implications for enhancing activity participation among aging adults are discussed in view of the interaction of personality and health status.