Abstract
Objective
The aim of this research was to segment older people in subgroups with similar social engagement activity patterns in order to better target public health interventions.
Design
Cross-sectional data, collected in 2005 by Dutch community health services (response 79%), from 22026 independently living elderly aged 65 or older were used. Cluster analysis was performed to derive subgroups with common social engagement activity patterns, which were compared for their self-perceived health, mental health, physical health, and loneliness.
Results
Among the independently living older people, five subgroups were identified with different patterns of social engagement activities: less social engaged elderly, less social engaged caregivers, social engaged caregivers, leisure engaged elderly, and productive engaged elderly. The subgroups differed significantly in social engagement activities, socio-demographics, and health (p<0.001). The groups with the highest relative numbers of older people who were frequently engaged in leisure and productive-related activities, also included relatively more elderly with a good self-perceived health (85.8% versus 58.8%), mental health (91.3% versus 74.6%), physical health (97.7% versus 73.0%), and elderly who were not lonely (70.0% versus 52.0%) when compared to the least healthy subgroup.
Conclusion
Older people could be segmented in subgroups based on similar social engagement patterns. Groups with elderly who were less socially engaged demonstrate to be possible target groups for public health interventions, given the relatively high shares of unhealthy older people among them.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Rowe JW, Kahn RL. Human aging: usual and successful. Science 1987;237:143–149.
House JS, Landis KR, Umberson D. Social Relationships and Health. Science 1988;241:540–545.
Seeman TE. Social ties and health: The benefits of social integration. Annals of Epidemiology 1996;6:442–451.
Berkman LF, Glass T, Brissette I, Seeman TE. From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium. Social Science & Medicine 2000;51:843–857.
Bath PA, Deeg D. Social engagement and health outcomes among older people: introduction to a special section. European Journal of Ageing 2006;2:24–30.
Mendes de Leon CF, Glass TA, Berkman LF. Social Engagement and Disability in a Community Population of Older Adults: The New Haven EPESE. American Journal of Epidemiology 2003;157:633–642.
Slater MD. Theory and method in health audience segmentation. Journal of Health Communication 1996;1:267–83.
Mayer JP, Taylor JR, Thrush JC. Exploratory cluster analysis of behavioral risks for chronic disease and injury: implications for tailoring health promotion services. Journal of Community Health 1990;15:377–89.
Slater MD, Flora JA. Health lifestyles: audience segmentation analysis for public health interventions. Health Education Quarterly 1991;18:221–33.
Boslaugh SE, Kreuter MW, Nicholson RA, Naleid K. Comparing demographic, health status and psychosocial strategies of audience segmentation to promote physical activity. Health Education Research 2005;20:430–438.
Idler EL, Benyamini Y. Self-Rated Health and Mortality: A Review of Twenty-Seven Community Studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 1997;38:21–37.
Hoeymans N, Feskens E, van den Bos GA, Kromhout D. Measuring functional status: Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between performance and selfreport (Zutphen Elderly Study 1990–1993). Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1996;49:1103–1110.
Friedman B, Heisel M, Delavan R. Validity of the SF-36 Five-Item Mental Health Index for Major Depression in Functionally Impaired, Community-Dwelling Elderly Patients. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2005;53:1978–1985.
Hoeymans N, Garssen AA, Westert GP, Verhaak PF. Measuring mental health of the Dutch population: a comparison of the GHQ-12 and the MHI-5. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2004;2:23.
Perenboom R, Oudshoorn K, van Herten L, Hoeymans N, Bijl R. Life-expectancy in good mental health: establishing cut-offs for the MHI-5 and GHQ-12 (in Dutch). Leiden: TNO, 2000.
de Jong-Gierveld J, Kamphuls F. The Development of a Rasch-Type Loneliness Scale. Applied Psychological Measurement 1985;9:289–299.
de Jong-Gierveld J, Kamphuis F, Dykstra PA. Loneliness and social isolation. In: Vangelisti A, Perlman D, eds. Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006:485–500.
Hair Jr JF, Black WC, Babin BJ, Anderson RE, Tatham RL. Cluster Analysis. Multivariate Data Analysis. sixth edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2006:555–628.
Netherlands Statistics. Key figures of the population forecasts 2006–2050. Voorburg/Heerlen, 2008.
Glass TA, Mendes de Leon C, Marottoli RA, Berkman LF. Population based study of social and productive activities as predictors of survival among elderly Americans. British Medical Journal 1999;319:478–483.
Wahrendorf M, von dem Knesebeck O, Siegrist J. Social productivity and well-being of older people: baseline results from the SHARE study. European Journal of Ageing 2006;3:67–73.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Croezen, S., Haveman-Nies, A., Alvarado, V.J. et al. Characterization of different groups of elderly according to social engagement activity patterns. J Nutr Health Aging 13, 776–781 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-009-0213-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-009-0213-8