Social participation and perceived depression among elderly population in South Africa

Abstract

There is a growing consensus regarding the influence of various psychosocial factors such as degree of social participation on health and disease outcomes, quality of life, and general well-being. Older individuals with diminished motor and physical functionality suffer a heightened risk of social exclusion and loneliness. Previous studies have demonstrated the association between social exclusion and loneliness with mental health among the older population. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether or not difficulty in social participation has any relationship with perceived depression among older individuals in South Africa. We collected cross-sectional data from the SAGE Well-Being of Older People Study 2010 on 422 men and women aged 50 years and above. Perceived depression and loss of interest in things (eg, personal relationships, hobbies) during the last 12 months were used as outcome variables with difficulty in joining community activities, relationships/community participation, friendships, and visiting family/friends as the main explanatory variables. Findings indicated that the prevalence of self-reported depression and the feeling of reduced interest in most things were respectively 51.9% and 43.8%. In the multivariate analysis, those who reported difficulty in joining community activities had respectively 64% (OR =1.639; 95% CI =1.081–2.583) and 69% (OR =1.685; 95% CI) higher odds of depression and loss of interest in things compared with those who did not report any difficulty. The study concludes that addressing the barriers to engaging in community activities may help minimize burden of depression among the elderly population in South Africa. Furthermore, large-scale studies are warranted to explore the social and structural barriers which constrain community participation among the elderly population.

Urban Living Environment and Mental Health of Older People: A Photovoice Study

“…Social participation was perceived by the participants as a means for involvement in the local community and staying active and engaged and, consequently, for giving meaning. Social participation seemed to play a role in the mental health and well-being of older persons, which is in line with the ndings from other studies (51)(52)(53)(54). Social participation may contribute to health by helping to maintain social contacts, providing a sense of meaning in older persons' lives and a sense of belonging to a social group and context, as well as increasing access to social support (43,51,52,55).…”

Effect of financial stress on self-rereported health and quality of life among older adults in five developing countries: a cross sectional analysis of WHO-SAGE survey

“…Self-reported depression was assessed by the question: “During the last 12 months, have you had a period lasting several days when you felt sad, empty or depressed? [ 23 – 25 ]” The answers were kept as a binary response: “Yes” and “No”. Quality of life was also measured subjectively by the question: “How would you rate your overall quality of life?” with the answers being: Very Good, Good, Moderate, Bad, Very Bad.…”

Melancholy or mahjong? Diversity, frequency, type, and rural-urban divide of social participation and depression in middle- and old-aged Chinese: A fixed-effects analysis

“…Under the umbrella concept of structural/cognitive social capital (Harpham et al, 2002;Hikichi et al, 2018), prior literature suggested that social interaction/communication during participating in social activities may incentivize mutual support, and provide one with a sense of belonging and largely reduce social isolation (Hikichi et al, 2017;Lin et al, 1999), which therefore, may improve mental health or prevent depression (Almedom, 2005). However, as SP covers a wide range of social activities, limited studies have revealed that the direction of the association and the magnitude varies between different types of activity, but failed to reach an agreement on the type or amount of SP that is associated with lower odds of depression (Hao et al, 2017;Roh et al, 2015;Vogelsang, 2016). One potential underlying reason may be that the social significance of SP varies amongst specific types and across the cultural contexts of investigation (Chiao et al, 2011).…”