Patterns of social participation among older adults with disabilities and the relationship with well-being: A latent class analysis.
AIM
Living with a chronic condition or a disability at older age impacts social participation. Social connections and social activities seem interrelated leading to heterogeneous patterns in social participation. The aim of this study was to identify a typology in social participation among older adults with disabilities, and to relate this typology to their background characteristics and well-being measures.


METHODS
A total of 1775 older adults with disabilities or chronic conditions aged 65-97 were sampled from a nationwide panel study in the Netherlands. Social participation was assessed by various measures related to social connections, social informal activities, voluntary work, effort to increase social participation, and online social participation. A latent class analysis was carried out to identify a typology of social participation. Differences between these classes were explored with multinomial regression analyses and pairwise comparisons.


RESULTS
Four classes were found: social withdrawers (22.5%, n = 399), proximate social dwellers (14.5%, n = 257), moderately active social dwellers (37.2%, n = 660) and pro-active social dwellers (25.9%, n = 459). Background characteristics, such as living alone and severity of disability, differed significantly among classes. Regarding well-being measures, it appeared that pro-active social dwellers had the most positive scores. Social withdrawers were most prone to reduced life satisfaction and health related quality of life and increased loneliness and experienced participation restrictions.


CONCLUSIONS
A typology with four patterns based on a wide spectrum of social participation aspects in older adults with disabilities was identified. This typology may help to assess the risk for reduced well-being of older adults with disabilities.
['van Hees|Suzanne G M|SGM|', 'van den Borne|Bart H P|BHP|', 'Menting|Juliane|J|', 'Sattoe|Jane N T|JNT|']
D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D002908:Chronic Disease D006233:Disabled Persons D005260:Female D006801:Humans D000077272:Latent Class Analysis D008132:Loneliness D008297:Male D009426:Netherlands D011788:Quality of Life D012919:Social Behavior D058992:Social Participation
Social participation Disability Latent class analysis Chronic condition Older age Elderly