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. 2021 Dec 17;76(Suppl 3):S251-S265.
doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab138.

Social Health in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

Linda J Waite  1   2 , Rebeccah Duvoisin  2 , Ashwin A Kotwal  3
Affiliations

Social Health in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

Linda J Waite et al. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. .

Abstract

Objectives: In this article, we present the theoretical framework that guided the development of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) including the measures of social health. We discuss the literature that links social measures to other outcomes, and we discuss in detail how researchers might construct common measures of social health, including those that reflect social relationships, sexuality, social networks, social resources, and social participation.

Methods: The NSHAP includes multiple detailed measures of social health, collected in the rounds of data collection carried out in 2005, 2010, and 2015, allowing for study of changes over time and as people age among a nationally representative sample of the community-dwelling population of older adults in the United States.

Results: We define indicators of social health, describe measures of each in the 2015 round of NSHAP, and show the distribution of the measures by gender and age. We present scales of dimensions of social health that have been developed elsewhere and describe their properties.

Discussion: We briefly discuss the distribution of these measures by age and gender in the 2015 round of NSHAP. Simple analyses of these categorized measures reveal differences by age and gender that deserve closer attention in future investigations using the NSHAP data.

Keywords: Longitudinal methods; Marriage; Social networks; Social support/resources.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Interactive biopsychosocial model of health in a social dyad.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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