Social participation reduces isolation among Japanese older people in urban area: A 3-year longitudinal study.

Manami Ejiri,Hisashi Kawai,Kaori Ishii,Shuichi Obuchi,Kazushige Ihara,Koichiro Oka,Hirohiko Hirano,Yutaka Watanabe,Yoshinori Fujiwara,Hun Kyung Kim,Maw Pin Tan

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0222887

Abstract

ObjectivesSocial isolation is a particular problem among older people and social participation may reduce future isolation. However, it is unclear which types of activities and which level of participation are effective. This study examines the relationship between social participation and isolation among Japanese older people by employing a 3-year longitudinal study.MethodsA mail survey was sent to 3,518 community-dwelling older people in an urban area in 2014 (baseline: BL). We then conducted follow-up mail survey on respondents who were non-isolated at BL in 2017 (follow-up: FL), with isolation being defined as being in contact with others less than once a week. An analysis was carried out on 1,070 subjects (398 men and 672 women). Social participation is defined by participation in group activities (community, senior club, hobbies, sports, volunteering, politics, industry, and religion). A logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the association between the types of social participation and the number of organization types at BL, and isolation at FL.ResultsAt FL, 75 men (18.8%) and 59 women (8.8%) were considered to be isolated. Among the men, participation in a hobby group and sports group both significantly reduced the degree of isolation. Moreover, participation in two organizations and three or more organizations significantly lowered the risk of isolation when compared to non-participants. Among women, there were no significant associations among particular types of social activities and isolation. On the other hand, participation in one organization and three or more organizations significantly reduced their isolation when compared to non-participants. There was a significant linear trend between the number of types of organizations and isolation, regardless of gender.ConclusionsParticipation in social activities reduces future isolation in older people. Encouraging participation in social activities could help reduce negative health outcomes associated with social isolation later in life.

Highlights

There is currently a growing interest in social issues globally, such as the isolation—as well as physical or mental health decline—of older people
Social participation and isolation publication, all authors commit to make the data underlying the findings described in this study fully available without restriction to those who request the data, in compliance with the PLOS Data Availability policy
Encouraging participation in social activities could help reduce negative health outcomes associated with social isolation later in life

Summary

Introduction

There is currently a growing interest in social issues globally, such as the isolation—as well as physical or mental health decline—of older people. Isolated older people are at an increased risk of needing care [3, 4], of dementia [5, 6], of depression and sleep disturbances [7], low health-related quality of life [8] and mortality [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Previous cross-sectional studies have reported that factors related to isolation later in life are; gender [16,17,18], living alone [1, 16, 19, 20], low income [18], and low subject or compromised mental health [16, 17, 21]. Encouragement of social participation may reduce old-age isolation

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