Background and aims: Measuring social participation of older adults is an important issue, since this concept includes not only daily activities (e.g.: feeding, personal care, mobility) but also social roles (e.g.: interpersonal relationships, leisure). The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not increased age is associated with a decrease in social participation. The study also explored relationships between social participation and some personal and environmental characteristics.
Methods: The Assessment of Life Habits (LIFE-H) was used to document social participation in 189 community-dwelling people aged 55 and over. The LIFE-H (short version 3.1) is composed of 77 daily activities and social roles associated with the 12 categories of the Disability Creation Process model.
Results: Social participation significantly decreases with advancing age (p < 0.001). Scores are reported for each category of the LIFE-H, by mean and standard deviation and also by percentiles for each of the following age groups: 55-64, 65-74, 75-84 and 85+. Gender is associated with participation in four LIFE-H categories, with women obtaining significantly higher scores in Nutrition (p < 0.001) and Interpersonal relationships (p = 0.007) and men in Housing (p = 0.002) and Mobility (p = 0.03). Lastly, participation is poorly associated with personal and environmental characteristics.
Conclusion: This study will help clinicians and researchers to better understand the concept of participation, and particularly to distinguish between changes in participation due to normal aging and those attributable to pathological aging.