Social participation and maintaining recommended waist circumference: prospective evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging

Enjoying the golden years: social participation and life satisfaction among Chinese older adults

Introduction

Older adults commonly face the risk of social isolation, which poses a significant threat to their quality of life. This study explores the association between social participation and life satisfaction among older Chinese adults.

Methods

Data were sourced from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Regression analysis and mediation analysis were employed to examine the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction, with a focus on the roles of loneliness and self-rated health.

Results

The results indicate that social participation is significantly positively associated with older adults' life satisfaction. Furthermore, the positive association is more pronounced with increased diversity in social activities. Mediation analysis reveals that reductions in feelings of loneliness and improvements in health levels mediate the relationship between social participation and life satisfaction. Further analysis showed that social participation had a greater positive association among rural older adults and those lacking family companionship.

Discussion

This study provides evidence for enhancing life satisfaction among older adults and highlights the importance of diversity in social participation.

Prospective Impacts of Social Participation Activities on Cognitive and Psychopathological Statuses in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

OBJECTIVES

This study investigated the impact of social activities on cognitive functioning and psychopathological symptoms.

METHODS

Participants aged 55 or older were enrolled through communities. Initial measures assessed demographic data, neuropsychological functioning, psychopathological state, and happiness. Social activities were evaluated using a modified 12-item tool, with 3-4 activities as the cutoff. Follow-up after 6-9 months included Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Beck Depression Inventory - II (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), and Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) measurements. Predictive models for psychiatric and cognitive statuses were built using multiple linear regression, adjusting for baseline conditions.

RESULTS

Initially, 516 older individuals enrolled, with 403 undergoing follow-up. During follow-up, the low participation group reported lower MMSE scores, higher BAI scores, and increased PHQ-15 risk. Negative correlations between social activity numbers and PHQ-15 results were found. Engagement in social clubs correlated positively with higher MMSE scores, while regular interactions with one's adult child(ren) were linked to decreased BAI scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The quantity of social activities was associated with lower somatic distress. Social club engagement positively influenced cognition, and regular interactions with one's adult child(ren) mitigated anxiety among older individuals.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Enough types of social activities, participating in social clubs, and adequate interactions with children protected against psychopathologies.

Evaluation of the optimal cutoff number of types of social participation activities in older people

INTRODUCTION

Social participation activities have a close association with health aging. However, the clinical significance of numbers of social participation activities and its cutoff value has not been defined.

METHODS

We recruited 516 people aged ≥55 years. Twelve social participation behaviors modified according to Taiwanese culture were investigated, and the adequacy of cutoff number was determined by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) according to the results of cluster analysis of individual activities and scores of the Brief Symptom Rating Scale-5 (BSRS-5) and the Chinese Happiness Inventory (CHI). Demographic, BSRS-5 and CHI data were then compared according to the candidate cutoff numbers.

RESULTS

The distribution of the numbers of social activities suggested that the highest partition of numbers of social activities was 3 in women and 4 in men. The AUC regarding the cluster of activity types was 0.917, with the highest Youden's J value located between 3 and 4. The AUC regarding the cluster of activity types and scores of the BSRS-5 and the CHI was 0.929, with similar cutoffs. If 3 and 4 were used as cutoffs, the between-group differences of both the CHI and the BSRS-5 were significant. More types of social activities had a different engaging frequency with the 3 and 4 cutoffs.

CONCLUSION

Our findings found an adequate cutoff with better differential power in the psychopathology and happiness of older people that provided a basis for application in intervention and policy formation.

Socioeconomic status and ADL disability of the older adults: Cumulative health effects, social outcomes and impact mechanisms

INTRODUCTION

Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the important indicators affecting individual's social participation and resource allocation, and it also plays an important role in the health shock of individuals. Faced by the trend of aging society, more and more nations across the world began to pay attention to prevent the risk of health shock of old adults.

METHODS

Based on the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2013, 2015 and 2018, this study uses path analysis and ologit model to empirically estimate the effects of SES and health shock on the activities of daily living (ADL) disability of old adults.

RESULTS

As a result, first, it was found that SES has significant impact on the disability of old adults. Specifically, economic conditions (income) plays dominant role. Economic status affects the risk of individual disability mainly through life security and health behavior. Secondly, SES significantly affecting health shock, with education and economic status showing remarkable impact, and there is an apparent group inequality. Furthermore, taking high education group as reference, the probability of good sight or hearing ability of the low education group was only 49.76% and 63.29% of the high education group, respectively, while the rates of no pain and severe illness were 155.50% and 54.69% of the high education group. At last, the estimation of path effect of SES on ADL disability indicates evident group inequality, with health shock plays critical mediating role.

CONCLUSIONS

SES is an important factor influencing residents' health shock, and health shocks like cerebral thrombosis and cerebral hemorrhage will indirectly lead to the risk of individual ADL disability. Furthermore, among the multi-dimensional indicators of SES, individual income and education are predominant factors affecting health shock and ADL disability, while occupation of pre-retirement have little impact.

Convenience Behavior and Being Overweight in Adults: Development and Validation of the Convenience Behavior Questionnaire

The etiology of overweight and obesity is a mixture of genetic determinants, environmental factors, and health behaviors. Especially intra- and interpersonal inactive behaviors, here termed convenience, seems to play an important role. The objective was to develop and validate the Convenience Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) to assess convenience-related items and their association with overweight and obesity in a large population. A sample of 1233 subjects aged 18–82 years from six population groups took part in a self-administered questionnaire. Test-retest reliability was estimated and the independent association between convenience-related items and overweight and obesity was investigated. Principal component analysis revealed three factors (avoidance behaviors, social interaction behaviors and domestic environmental factors) which explained 43.4% of the variance contributing to the CBQ. Cronbach's α ranged from 0.80–0.89. Test-retest reliability using intra-class correlation was acceptable ≥ 0.70. Forward stepwise logistic regression analysis, including gender, education level, age and TV viewing on weekends showed a positive relation of convenience behavior and overweight (OR: 1.40; 95% CI: 1.01–1.96; P = 0.048), while physical activity status was not significantly associated with overweight (OR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.77–1.54; P = 0.629). The CBQ seems to be a reliable tool which considers non-traditional behaviors related to overweight development. Interestingly our findings revealed a better relationship between convenience-related behavior with overweight and obesity than the habitual physical activity score.

Class and Health Inequality in Later Life: Patterns, Mechanisms and Implications for Policy

The growth of the post-retirement population, which has occurred as a result of rapid growth in life expectancy coupled with the ageing of the baby boomer cohort, has led to significant concern. This concern, however, typically neglects the heterogeneity of later life experiences and how these are patterned by inequalities that reflect how process of social stratification continue to operate into later life. This paper draws on a programme of work, based on analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, to empirically examine questions of inequality in later life. It begins by illustrating the patterning of health inequality. It then investigates the importance of later life contexts and events in shaping inequality through and after the retirement process. In doing so it examines the extent to which later life continues to reflect stable social structures that shape inequalities and, consequently, health and wellbeing in later life. The paper then illustrates how the effects of socioeconomic position on health in later life can be theorised as a product of class processes, borrowing in part from Bourdieu. Other dimensions of inequality, such as gender, ethnicity, area and sexuality, are not discussed here. The paper concludes with a discussion of the need for a close focus on inequalities in later life in research, policy and practice.

Social participation and coronary heart disease risk in a large prospective study of UK women

BACKGROUND

Participation in social activities is thought to prevent heart disease, but evidence is inconclusive.

DESIGN

We assessed whether participating in social activities reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in a large prospective study of 735,159 middle-aged UK women.

METHODS

Women reported their participation in eight social activities (religious group, voluntary work, adult education, art/craft/music, dancing, sports club, yoga, bingo) and were followed for first CHD event (hospital admission or death) over the next 8.6 years. Cox regression models were used to estimate relative risks for CHD incidence by participation in each and in any of the social activities.

RESULTS

After adjustment for age and region only, every activity except bingo was associated with a reduced risk of CHD (n = 30,756 cases in total). However, after additional adjustment for 11 factors (deprivation, education, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, alcohol, marital status, self-rated health, happiness, hypertension, diabetes), every relative risk estimate moved close to 1.0. For example, for participation in any of the activities compared with none, the relative risk adjusted for age and region only was 0.83 (99% confidence interval 0.81-0.86), but changed to 1.06 (99% confidence interval 1.02-1.09) after additional adjustment. Adjustment for education, self-rated health, smoking and physical activity attenuated the associations most strongly. Residual confounding and other unmeasured factors may well account for any small remaining associations.

CONCLUSIONS

Associations between participation in various social activities and CHD risk appear to be largely or wholly due to confounding by personal characteristics of the participants.

The role of social networks in the development of overweight and obesity among adults: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Although it is increasingly acknowledged that social networks are important to our understanding ofoverweight and obesity, there is limited understanding about the processes by which such networks shapetheir progression. This paper reports the findings of a scoping review of the literature that sought to identify the key processes through which social networks are understood to influence the development of overweight and obesity.

METHODS

A scoping review was conducted. Forty five papers were included in the final review, the findings of which were synthesised to provide an overview of the main processes through which networks have been understood to influence the development of overweight and obesity.

RESULTS

Included papers addressed a wide range of research questions framed around six types of networks: a paired network (one's spouse or intimate partner); friends and family (including work colleagues and people within social clubs); ephemeral networks in shared public spaces (such as fellow shoppers in a supermarket or diners in a restaurant); people living within the same geographical region; peers (including co-workers, fellow students, fellow participants in a weight loss programme); and cultural groups (often related toethnicity). As individuals are embedded in many of these different types of social networks at any one time, the pathways of influence from social networks to the development of patterns of overweight and obesity are likely to be complex and interrelated. Included papers addressed a diverse set of issues: body weight trends over time; body size norms or preferences; weight loss and management; physical activity patterns; and dietary patterns.

DISCUSSION

Three inter-related processes were identified: social contagion (whereby the network in which people are embedded influences their weight or weight influencing behaviours), social capital (whereby sense of belonging and social support influence weight or weight influencing behaviours), and social selection (whereby a person's network might develop according to his or her weight).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings have important implications for understanding about methods to target the spread of obesity, indicating that much greater attention needs to be paid to the social context in which people make decisions about their weight and weight influencing behaviours.

Short- and long-term determinants of social detachment in later life

The benefits of engagement with social activities on health and wellbeing are widely reported by gerontologists. Less is known, however, about what drives withdrawal from and re-engagement with social activities in later life. This is an important area of research which has direct implications for public policies that aim to ensure equitable outcomes among older adults. Much of the existing literature supports continuity theory which assumes people will not alter their level of social engagement as they age or after life-changing events. This paper uses data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing over an eight-year period (2002–2010) to determine the effect of short-term changes in marital, employment and health status over an initial four-year period on the dynamics of social detachment over the following four years. We control for underlying socio-economic disadvantages built up during the lifecourse and find that these effects, including poor education, wealth and health, are the most important determinants of persistent detachment from social activities as well as movement into and out of social detachment. The effects are consistent in men and women. The effects of short-term changes in marital and employment status have little effect on social detachment. Recent deterioration in health, however, predicted movement into social detachment, which implies the relationship between health and social detachment is reciprocal.