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Using and interpreting mental health measures in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

ABSTRACT: National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) included five unique mental health measures in Waves 1 and 2 that researchers can use to measure the overall emotional health of participants: depressive symptoms, happiness-unhappiness, anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and felt loneliness. For each, we detail the rationale for its development and explain how to score, analyze, and interpret results.NSHAP developed its measures by modifying traditional short-form scales to improve response efficiency and reduce respondent burden. Scoring protocols and interpretations were developed for each measure. U.S. population estimates for older adults born between 1920 and 1947 were generated using age-eligible samples from Waves 1 and 2.NSHAP's protocols yielded U.S. prevalence rates similar to other nationally representative studies of older adults and comparable between waves. Higher estimates of anxiety symptoms and perceived stress in Wave 2 compared with Wave 1 were explained by age, administration mode, and time period. Analytic strategies for longitudinal analyses are provided. In Wave 2, mental health generally was worse at older ages, with women having more symptoms at younger ages than men. Women had fewer anxiety symptoms at the oldest ages.NSHAP's mental health measures were successfully integrated into the project's survey and showed acceptable external reliability as well as moderately stable individual characteristics across the 5 years between Waves 1 and 2. Depressive symptoms and unhappiness may form a mental health cluster in the elderly, distinct from anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and felt loneliness. Gender differences in age-specific patterns of mental health were evident using the exact age of participants rather than the traditional decade groupings. Administration mode and time period (between 2005-2006 and 2010-2011) were determined to be potential confounds that need to be accommodated in longitudinal analyses of aging, whereas sample composition was not an issue for interpreting mental health measures.

SUBMITTER: Payne C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4303090 | biostudies-other | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Using and interpreting mental health measures in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

Payne Carolyn C Hedberg E C EC Kozloski Michael M Dale William W McClintock Martha K MK

The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences 20141101

<h4>Introduction</h4>National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) included five unique mental health measures in Waves 1 and 2 that researchers can use to measure the overall emotional health of participants: depressive symptoms, happiness-unhappiness, anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and felt loneliness. For each, we detail the rationale for its development and explain how to score, analyze, and interpret results.<h4>Method</h4>NSHAP developed its measures by modifying traditional ...[more]

PMID: 25360028

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Project description:BackgroundOlder adults receive important health benefits from more robust social capital. Yet, the mechanisms behind these associations are not fully understood. Some evidence suggests that higher levels of social capital ultimately affect health through alterations in physical activity (PA), but most of this research has relied on self-reported levels of PA. The aim of this study was to determine whether components of social capital, including social network size and composition as well as the frequency of participation in various social and community activities, were associated with accelerometry-measured PA levels in a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults (≥ 62 years).MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from the wrist accelerometry sub-study (n = 738) within Wave 2 of the National Social, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a population-based longitudinal study that collects extensive survey data on the physical, cognitive, and social health of older adults. Participants' physical activity was measured with a wrist accelerometer worn for 72 consecutive hours. We related seven, self-reported social relationship variables (network size, network proportion friends, and frequencies of socializing with friends and family, visiting with neighbors, attending organized group meetings, attending religious services, and volunteering) to accelerometer-measured PA (mean counts-per-minute) using multivariate linear regression analysis, while adjusting for potential confounders.ResultsLarger social networks (p = 0.042), higher network proportion friends (p = 0.013), more frequent visiting with neighbors (p = 0.009), and more frequent attendance at organized group meetings (p = 0.035) were associated with higher PA levels after controlling for demographic and health covariates. Volunteering was significant prior to adjusting for covariates. No significant associations were found between frequencies of socializing with friends and relatives or attendance at religious services and PA.ConclusionsThis study suggests social capital is significantly related to objectively measured PA levels among older adults, and that friendships as well as social participation in groups and with neighbors may be particularly pertinent to PA. These findings expand our understanding of and offer a potential mechanism linking social relationships and overall health among older adults. They also have implications for how we might motivate older adults to be more physically active.

Project description:Research investigating associations between social class over the life-course and later health relies primarily on secondary analysis of existing data, limiting the number and timing of available measurements. This paper aims to examine the impact of these constraints on the measurement of life-course occupational social class and subsequent explanatory analyses predicting health in later life. Participants of the UK Boyd Orr Lifegrid Subsample (n = 294), aged an average of 68 years, provided retrospective information on their life-course occupational social class, coded at 6-month intervals. This was used to simulate two types of life-course data: (1) Theoretical: Life stage (four data-points at key life stages); (2) A-theoretical: Panel data (data-points at regular intervals of varying length). The percentage of life time in disadvantage and the predictive value for limiting longstanding illness (LLI) in later life using the full life-course and simulated data was compared. The presence of 'critical periods' of exposure and the role of trajectories of social class were also investigated. Compared with the full data, the life stage approach estimated a higher percentage of life time in disadvantage and emphasised 'transient' periods in disadvantage (e.g. labour market entry). With varying intervals using the a-theoretical approach, there was no clear pattern. Percentage of life time in manual class was a significant predictor of LLI only when using the four-point life stage approach. Occupational social class at labour market entry was a predictor of LLI in later life, suggesting a 'critical period'. Comparison of trajectories of social class further emphasised the importance of the sequence and timing of exposures to disadvantage in determining later health. We conclude that producing a valid summary of life-course occupational social class does not necessarily require a large number of data-points, particularly if guided by relevant theory, and that such measures can reveal important associations with later health.

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Using and interpreting mental health measures in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

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Using and interpreting mental health measures in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project.

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