The Associations between income, informal social networks, and health among older adults in South Korea: A multi‐group analysis based on the level of age‐friendly environments

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate the role of age‐friendly environments (AFE) on the associations between income, informal social networks, and health among South Korean older adults. We used data from the “2017 Age Integration Survey” collected nationally and ultimately analyzed 615 older adults over 50 years of age. Structural equation modeling and multi‐group analysis were used to test the hypothesis. Specifically, two groups of perceived levels of AFE (top 25%, bottom 25%) were compared in order to examine the moderating effects. The results indicated that poor income and scarce informal social networks each had a significantly adverse impact on health. However, the effect of income on health was no longer significant for older adults living in environments that were more age‐friendly. In both groups, the presence of fewer informal social networks adversely impacted health, although the sizes of the effects decreased when the level of AFE perceived by older adults was improved. Finally, several implications of the study findings were discussed.

Social Networks May Shape Visually Impaired Older Adults’ Occupational Engagement: A Narrative Inquiry

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Socioeconomic Classes among Oldest-Old Women in South Korea: A Latent Class Analysis

“…A possible reason for these conflicting results may be that income is mediated by a variety of other SES factors, and that single measures of SES are insufficient to capture SES in old age reliably and are not enough to explain health status variations fully [ 5 ]. For instance, area-based studies demonstrate that the socioeconomic conditions of localities also affect older adults’ health in addition to individual conditions [ 6 , 7 ]. Other socioeconomic issues such as employment, education, housing, segregation, and mobility can also make a difference in the health status of older adults [ 8 ].…”