Abstract
BackgroundRelatively little empirical attention has focused on the association between social participation and depressive symptoms amongst older adults in Asian nations, where persons over the age of 65 represent a rapidly growing segment of the population. This study explores the dynamic relationship between participation in social activities and trajectories of depressive symptomatology among older Taiwanese adults surveyed over 18 years.MethodsData are from a nationally representative sample of 1,388 adults aged 60-64 first surveyed in 1989 and followed over an 18-year time period for a total of six waves. Individual involvement in social activities was categorized into continuous participation, ceased participation before age 70, initiating participation in older adulthood, never participated, and dropped out before age 70. Two domains of depressive symptoms--negative affect and lack of positive affect--were measured using a 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale.ResultsAnalyses using growth curve modeling showed that continuously participating or initiating participation in social activities later life is significantly associated with fewer depressive symptoms among older Taiwanese adults, even after controlling for the confounding effects of aging, individual demographic differences, and health status.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that maintaining or initiating social participation in later life benefits the mental health of older adults. Facilitating social activities among older adults is a promising direction for programs intended to promote mental health and successful aging among older adults in Taiwan.
Highlights
Little empirical attention has focused on the association between social participation and depressive symptoms amongst older adults in Asian nations, where persons over the age of 65 represent a rapidly growing segment of the population
Sample and Data Collection This study uses data collected from the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA), a nationally representative survey designed to study the impact of socioeconomic development on physical and emotional well-being of the older adult population in Taiwan
Bivariate tests indicated that older adults who had better physical health status were more likely to be represented among the group that reported continuous social participation before age 70 (71%) in contrast with 59% group who reported never participating and 57% of the group lost to follow-up
Summary
Little empirical attention has focused on the association between social participation and depressive symptoms amongst older adults in Asian nations, where persons over the age of 65 represent a rapidly growing segment of the population. Sugihara et al (2008) [22] examined the role of social participation in mitigating psychological distress in a nationally representative sample of Japanese adults aged 55 to 64 They found that volunteer work was significantly associated with fewer depressive symptoms for both males and females. These studies involved analysis of longitudinal data and identified a relationship between a particular type of social participation and mental health, one of the outstanding questions raised by prior investigations was how change and duration of social participation affected the development of psychological distress in later life. Variations in exposure to a protective resource–such as the continuity, initiation, or cessation of social participation–may differentially increase or decrease the likelihood of experiencing psychological distress among older adults [23]
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