Activities and Volunteer Work (ACTQ)

The Daily Activities and Leisure Activities Add-on Study (DALAS) is the name of an additional digital questionnaire that was send out to adult and elderly Lifelines participants (60-80 years old) in collaboration with the Department of Epidemiology of the University of Groningen.

The Lifelines DALAS questionnaire composed a broad range of measures related to health, quality of life, and lifestyle, as well as a broad range of questions assessing the daily activities (i.e., employment, providing informal care and voluntary work, taking care of grandchildren) and leisure activities (i.e., sports, cultural activities, traveling, social contacts) of participants.
A full section of the questionnaire was devoted to participation in voluntary work, containing questions about current and former participation in voluntary work, the frequency, duration, intensity, and type of volunteering, and the motivations underlying volunteering.

The digital questionnaires were send out between May 2017 and March 2018

~16,000 participants were invited for ACTQ.
The selection criteria were the following:

• Age >= 60 and <80
• Participant filled in either 2A Questionnaire 1 or 2A Questionnaire 2

The response rate was ~50% (n=~7600).

• Niebuur et al. (2019). Translation and validation of the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) among the general Dutch older population. Int J Env Res Pub Health 16(17): E3106.
• Niebuur et al. (2019). The Dutch comparative scale for assessing volunteer motivations among volunteers and non-volunteers: an adaptation of the Volunteer Functions Inventory. Int J Env Res Pub Health 16(24): E5047.

• Alcohol use (18 items)
• Employment status (9 items)
• Eye conditions (general) (2 items)
• Eye conditions (OQ) (2 items)
• Family composition (1 item)
• General health (PROMIS) (29 items)
• Hobbies & activities (27 items)
• Home environment (general) (16 items)
• Household composition (2 items)
• Informal care (22 items)
• Living situation (16 items)
• Loneliness (LS) (6 items)
• Food intake (2 items)
• Personal data (3 items)
• Physical activity (SQUASH) (2 items)
• Quality of life (EQ5D) (6 items)
• Quality of life (HHIA) (3 items)
• Quality of life (RAND) (2 items)
• Self-assessment (Intermed) (1 item)
• Smoking & tobacco use (1 item)
• Social functioning (general) (6 items)
• Social functioning (SPF-IL) (17 items)
• Stress (LTE) (14 items)
• Values, beliefs, priorities (5 items)
• Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) (90 items)
• Volunteer work (general) (467 items)