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The effect of social participation on the subjective and objective health status of the over-fifties: evidence from SHARE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2015

TIZIANA LEONE  and
PHILIPP HESSEL
TIZIANA LEONE*
Affiliation:
LSE Health, London, UK.
PHILIPP HESSEL
Affiliation:
LSE Health, London, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Tiziana Leone, LSE Health, Department of Social Policy, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK E-mail: t.leone@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract

Increasing social participation among older individuals to increase health and wellbeing has become a distinct policy goal of many national governments and the European Commission. However, to date the evidence on how social participation affects health, both subjective and objective, remains limited, especially since most studies do not account for the reciprocal relationship. The aim of this study is to analyse how changes in social participation affect both the subjective and objective health of older Europeans as well as how changes in health status affect social participation. Using longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the results suggest that both the uptake as well as the continuation of social activities increase the chances of improvements in subjective as well as objective health. Furthermore, improvements in self-rated health as well as grip strength significantly increase the chances of taking up new activities as well as continuing with existing ones. Country effect is not as strong as expected and the benefits could be homogeneous across different cultures once we control for socio-economic status. Overall, the results stress the need for taking into account the reciprocal relationship between social participation and health. The paper highlights the importance of focusing on both uptake and continuation of social participation when devising policy aimed at improving healthy ageing.

Keywords

healthy ageingsocial participationlongitudinalsubjective healthgrip strength
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , May 2016 , pp. 968 - 987
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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