TITLE:
Social integration: How is it related to self-rated health?
AUTHORS:
Hejun Kang, Yvonne L. Michael
KEYWORDS:
Daily Social Contact; Social Integration; Self-Rated Health; Older Adults; Generalized Ordinal Logistic Regression
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Aging Research,
Vol.2 No.1,
February
19,
2013
ABSTRACT: Social integration
has well-established health benefits among older adults in observational
studies. However, interventions designed to increase social integration have
not improved health suggesting important knowledge gaps on how social
integration influences health outcomes. This study developed a new measure of
social integration, daily social contact, capturing the interpersonal nature of
social integration and mobility of individuals, and providing a direct
assessment of individuals’ real-time access to companionship and social
support. The data used is the 2006-2007 American Time Use Survey (ATUS),
which surveyed 25,191 individuals aged 15 years and older (n = 4378 aged 65
years and older). Generalized ordinal logistic regression analyses revealed
positive, but non-parallel relationships between daily social contacts and the
ordinal categories of self-rated health among older adults. This study may be
used to identify populations that experience social exclusion, such that future
research can determine more precisely how to
intervene to improve health outcomes.