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. 2021 Oct 23;21(1):592.
doi: 10.1186/s12877-021-02554-7.

Is social participation associated with good self-rated health among visually impaired older adults?: the JAGES cross-sectional study

Atsuhide Takesue  1 , Yoshimune Hiratsuka  2 , Akira Inoue  3 , Katsunori Kondo  4   5 , Akira Murakami  3 , Jun Aida  6   7
Affiliations

Is social participation associated with good self-rated health among visually impaired older adults?: the JAGES cross-sectional study

Atsuhide Takesue et al. BMC Geriatr. .

Abstract

Background: While it has been recognized that visual impairment is associated with poor self-rated health (SRH), in addition to various negative health outcomes of visual impairment, the number of older adults with visual impairment is increasing due to population aging. As increasing evidence has been found for the effectiveness of social participation on good SRH, we examined whether there was an association between social participation and SRH and investigated whether the effect differed by visual status.

Methods: Questionnaire data on self-reported visual status, social participation, socioeconomic status, and SRH were obtained in 2016. A total of 24,313 community-dwelling individuals aged 65 and over participated. We examined the association of social participation and SRH status among older adults with visual impairment. Stratified analysis and analysis with an interaction term between social participation and visual status were also conducted. Social participation was assessed by the number of participating groups (no participation, one, two, and three or more).

Results: Overall visual impairment prevalence was 9.3% (95% CI: 8.9-9.7). Among those with and without visual impairment, prevalence of poor SRH was 38.4 and 13.1%, respectively. However, the association between social participation with SRH was similar, especially for those who participated in one or two groups. For people with (PR = 0.54) and without visual impairment (PR = 0.50), those who participated in two groups showed lower prevalence ratios for poor SRH compared to people without social participation.

Conclusion: Social participation showed a beneficial association with SRH among older adults with visual impairment. Future interventions could focus on the potentially positive role of social participation on SRH among older adults with visual impairment.

Keywords: Interaction analyses; Older adults; Self-rated health; Social participation; Visual impairment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest with respect to this research study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comparison of social activity type between older adults with and without visual impairment Predictive margins and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of social participation on poor self-rated health according to visual status. Note. Between-group differences were determined using χ2 test. *p < 0.001, **p = 0.273.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Predictive margins and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of social participation on poor self-rated health according to visual status. Note. The red line and blue line represent with visual impairment and without visual impairment, respectively. There is no difference in the slope between the two groups when the number of participating groups is two or less
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