The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #52558

James E. Lubben, DSW, MPH, Professor of Social Welfare & Urban Planning, UCLA/School of Public Policy and Social Research, 3250 Public Policy Building, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656, 310-825-2041, lubben@ucla.edu

Supportive social ties enhance physical and mental health among older adults. Conversely, social isolation, loneliness and stressful social ties contribute to higher risk of disability, poor recovery from illness and early death. Given the growing consensus of their importance, consistent tools used to assess social ties are becoming even more crucial to the appropriate practice of geriatrics and study of gerontology. However, most settings restrict the length of instruments devoted to social assessment. A compromise has been to develop relatively short composite measures. This presentation describes recent updates to the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS) that has been used in many health and aging studies over the past 10 year. The LSNS-6 is suggested for settings desiring a short screener for social isolation. The LSNS-R is a 12-item revised version of the original LSNS. It is suggested as a general measure for social network measure. The LSNS-18 is an expanded version that is more appropriate for researchers desiring greater clarity of the nature of social integration. Reliability analyses demonstrate strong internal consistency for the new versions (alpha > .80). The results of confirmatory factor analyses are also presented.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand the magnitude of social support networks' effect on health
• To compare the effect of social support networks' effect on health to other established health risks
• To identify measures of social support networks

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.