RT Journal Article
T1 Social relations and health in older people in Spain using SHARE survey data
A1 Silberman-Beltramella, Mariela
A1 Ayala, Alba
A1 Rodríguez-Blázquez, Carmen
A1 João Forjaz, Maria
AB Introduction: Social relationships (SR) are an important aspect in the healthy ageing process. The study aimed to describe SR in over-50s in Spain and analyse their association with physical/emotional, functional and cognitive/sensory health variables.Methods: The study sample was formed by 5583 people representing the Spanish population aged 50 and over, who participated in the sixth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The variables were divided into socio-demographic aspects and economic, health and SR aspects represented by the number of friends, family members and satisfaction with social network and the Revised UCLA loneliness scale. The health variables were grouped using a main component analysis. Multiple linear regressions were performed between the health components with socio-demographic and SR variables.Results: 67.26% of respondents said they did not feel lonely. The feeling of loneliness was the variable most closely related to the physical and emotional, functional and cognitive and sensory health components. The main SR variable associated to health components was the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (standardised beta, p < 0.001; p < 0.001; and p < 0.001, respectively). The number of family members in social network SR variable was also associated with the physical/emotional health (β = 0.09, p < 0.001) and cognitive/sensory ability (β = 0.10, p = 0.001) components.Conclusions: The main SR aspect that impacts health status was loneliness. The results of this study suggest the importance of developing public health policies oriented to promoting action on the SR characteristics that enhance older people’s health.
PB BMC
SN 1471-2318
YR 2022
FD 2022-04-04
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10016/37617
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10016/37617
LA eng
NO This study was funded by the Institute of Health Carlos III through the QASP (PI18CIII/00046), and partially funded by REDISSEC (RD16/0005/0002 and RD16/0001/0005, co-funded by European Regional Development Fund/European Social Fund "A way to make Europe"/"Investing in your future" projects, and the ENCAGEN-CM project (H2019/HUM-5698) funded by the Community of Madrid and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
DS e-Archivo
RD 17 jul. 2024