Resource and Strategic Mobilization Model (RSM) of Productive Aging: Examining Older Americans’ Participation in Various Productive Activities

The Effect of Home- and Community-Based Services on Social Engagement

Objectives: Home- and community-based services (HCBS) help older adults to remain active in community settings. However, it is not known if there is a causal relationship between HCBS and social engagement. Methods: We used data from the 2010 and 2012 Health and Retirement Study and measured the effect of HCBS on social engagement via nearest-neighbor Mahalanobis matching, optimal pair matching, genetic matching, and optimal full matching. Results: Genetic matching showed that the odds of social engagement for participants who received at least one HCBS (congregate meal, home-delivered meal, transportation service, case management, homemaker or housekeeping services, or caregiver services) in the prior two years was 1.07 times more likely than participants who have not received any HCBS (robust SE = .030, p = .040). Discussion: HCBS may remove barriers to social engagement through increasing older adults' personal resources and personal networks.

The Effects of Life Changes in Family on Engagement in Economic Activities Among Female Older Adults: A Comparative Study Between China and South Korea

In this study, the relationship between life changes in family members and engagement in economic activities among female older adults was explored in two East Asian countries: China and South Korea. Using panel data from wave 2 (2008) to wave 6 (2016) of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging and wave 1 (2011) to wave 3 (2015) of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a correlated random effects probit model was estimated. The sample included 4,412 observations from South Korea and 1,972 observations from China. The results demonstrate that life changes in family affect engagement in economic activity among female older adults in both countries. However, the influence of family members on economic activity differed between the countries. These results suggest that participation in economic activities among female older adults needs to be understood in different macro-social contexts.

Cognitively stimulating activities and risk of probable dementia or cognitive impairment in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Objectives

To examine the association between cognitive stimulating activities (CSA) in later life (internet/email use, employment, volunteering, evening classes, social club membership and newspaper reading) and risk of cognitive impairment or dementia using marginal structural models to account for time-varying confounding affected by prior exposure.

Methods

Data were used from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing waves 1 (2002) to 7 (2014), a nationally representative sample of adults in England aged ≥50. Self-reported participation in CSAs were measured as binary exposures from waves 2 (2004) to 6 (2012), with final sample sizes between n = 3937 and n = 2530 for different CSAs. Baseline exposure and covariates were used to create inverse probability of treatment and censoring weights (IPTCW). IPTCW repeated measures Poisson and linear regression were used to estimate each CSAs effect on risk of probable cognitive impairment or dementia at wave 7 (defined as a score of ≤11/27 on a modified telephone interview for cognitive status (TICS-27)). Results were compared to standard regression adjustment.

Results

Internet use at any wave (Risk ratios between 0.62 and 0.69) and volunteering in waves 3 to 6 (RRs between 0.516 and 0.633) were associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment in IPTCW models. Standard estimates were similar for both internet use and volunteering.

Newspaper reading (RR 95% Confidence interval 0.74–0.99) and social club membership (RR 95% CI 0.54–0.86) at wave 6 were significantly associated with risk of cognitive impairment in standard models, but not in the IPTCW models (RR 95% CI 0.82–1.11 and 0.60–1.08 respectively). Employment and evening classes were not associated with cognitive impairment in either model.

Conclusions

We found that volunteering and internet use were associated with reduced risk of cognitive impairment. Associations between newspaper reading or social club membership and cognitive impairment may be due to time-varying confounding affected by prior exposure.

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Confounding affected by past exposure is a problem in studies of cognitive function.

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We addressed this using inverse probability weighted marginal structural models.

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Volunteering and internet use were protective against cognitive impairment.

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Other cognitively stimulating activities were protective with standard regression.

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But these associations were non-significant in the marginal structural models.