Social Networks and Health Inequalities in Old Age

Abstract

Thanks to improvements in living standards and health behavior as well as medical progress since the second half of the twentieth century, old age has become a life phase in its own right. This phase usually begins by the transition from working life to retirement (Kohli, 2000). Both the chance of reaching retirement and the life expectancy after retirement have increased significantly (Eisenmenger & Emmerling, 2011). The post-work phase spans several decades for many people now. In addition, people who retire are considerably healthier and more independent than their peers of earlier birth cohorts (Crimmins, 2004). The expansion of this phase of life has been accompanied by a differentiation of older people in terms of health and independence: healthy and active people experience this phase, as do people in need of help and care. This fact is considered by distinguishing between old and very old people (Baltes, 2007). Characteristics of old age are absence of non-compensable health restrictions, self-determination of various activities (e.g., traveling, hobbies, voluntary work), and strong social integration. Overall, the demands of old age can be coped well in this phase. Very old age is characterized by an increase in physical and cognitive losses and diseases, and a decrease in the abilities and possibilities of compensating for deficits (Baltes, 1997; Baltes & Smith, 2003).

Social network shrinking is explained by active and passive effects but not increasing selectivity with age in wild macaques

“…Although frailty and declining motivation may contribute to decreasing social engagement with age, prevailing socioemotional selectivity theories of ageing tend to emphasize increasing selectivity in partner choice as a driver of age-related network narrowing [4][5][6]56]. According to socioemotional selectivity theories, among humans changes in network composition and size result from greater priority given to maintaining emotionally positive relationships over acquiring new information, leading subjects to discard less valued relationships.…”

“…This effect was partially confounded by demographic trends, compatible with selective disappearance, further highlighting the need to account for demographic effects, a critical point in both animal and human biogerontology research [18,56,64]. Complete life-course trajectories are almost impossible to collect in humans, and mixed-longitudinal studies are biased by selective mortality and sensitive to self-perception and memory recollection biases when surveys are used [4,18]. In this context, longitudinal data collected through systematic direct observation of animal populations represent a valuable contribution to social ageing research.…”

“…Several causal models for reduced social engagement are anchored in the framework of age-related losses (e.g. activity and social exchange theories, reviewed in [4]). Accordingly, individuals experiencing frailty, sickness or loss of social value with age are unable to maintain their social engagement owing to physiological constraints, exclusion by younger generations or diminished self-perception.…”

“…One of the keys to healthy ageing may lie in the positive influence of strong social integration on health [2,3]. Concerns therefore arise from research showing that people reduce the size of their social network and their level of social engagement with age [4]. The causes and consequences of this reduction in social engagement are still actively debated [2,4].…”