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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Sato Ashida, PhD, School of Public Health, The Ohio State University, B-107 Starling-Loving Hall, 320 West 10th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1240, 614-293-8255, ashida.2@osu.edu and Catherine Heaney, PhD, MPH, Psychology and Human Biology, Stanford University, Jordan Hall, Room 424, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305.

As the number of older adults increases, it becomes increasingly important to prevent unnecessary disease and disability that may result in decreased quality of life and increased dependency among older adults. Studies have shown that older adults who possess good social relationships live healthier and longer in their own homes in the community. Social support and companionship are available through good social relationships. Although many studies have investigated how social support and companionship influence older adults' health and well-being, most studies looked at these two factors together without considering the possible distinctions between the two. This presentation will explore the extent to which social support and companionship might differ in terms of their associations with the structural characteristics of social network systems and older adults' health and well-being. Trained interviewers conducted 126 face-to-face interviews with older adults living in an urban community who were between the ages of 65 and 85. Recruitment letters were sent to randomly selected addresses from all possible addresses in the area. The interview consisted of questions adapted from previously validated measures of social network characteristics, social support, loneliness or lack of companionship, health, and demographics. The results indicated that social support and companionship were associated with different structural characteristics of social network systems. Furthermore, companionship had a stronger association with health status of the participants than social support. Implications of the findings in developing programs and policy that address the issues associated with and ways to positively influence each of these factors will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: