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

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 deta...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2021-12, Vol.76 (Supplement_3), p.S251-S265
Main Authors: Waite, Linda J, Duvoisin, Rebeccah, Kotwal, Ashwin A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging - psychology
Female
Health Status
Health Surveys - methods
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Marriage
Middle Aged
Psychometrics - methods
Sexual Partners - psychology
Social Capital
Social Networking
Social Participation
Social Support
Spouses - psychology
THE JOURNAL OF GERONTOLOGY: Social Sciences
United States
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:1079-5014
1758-5368
DOI:10.1093/geronb/gbab138