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Symposium

Health Sciences

ESPO and Health Sciences Section Symposium: Building Bridges: Leveraging Social Connections and Environments to Improve Health in Later Life

Saturday, November 11, 2023
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
Location: Room 103

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed focus on social connections as fundamental contributors to health across the lifespan. Social connections have been studied in numerous ways (e.g., social network size, daily social interactions, engagement in social activities) and may facilitate health via multiple, dynamic biopsychosocial mechanisms. In line with this year’s theme, we review novel insights from early-career scholars into how “building bridges” with others throughout life may promote mental and cognitive health in later life. Further, we emphasize how bridging disciplines (e.g., social and neurocognitive sciences) is vital to understanding how social environments may “get under the skin” to impact health. Presentations will span multiple social-ecological levels (community, institutional, interpersonal). Beginning at the community/institutional level, Dr. Moored will discuss how the quantity of neighborhood social destinations contributes to GPS measures of community mobility in older adults. Dr. Britt will then describe how religious participation, a specific social institutional activity, is associated with an inflammatory biomarker predictive of cognitive impairments. The remaining talks will then report on daily social experiences. Dr. Ng will highlight links between daily support exchanges and life satisfaction in older adults and how these relationships differ by marital status. Extending to the caregiving context, Dr. Puga will present on how role captivity and daily changes in social isolation contribute to mood symptoms in family caregivers of individuals living with dementia. Our Discussant, Dr. Cudjoe, will provide a critical review in the context of new directions for research on social connections and environments.

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe different methods for measuring and operationalizing social connections and environments in studies of older adults.
  • Identify which aspects of the social environment (e.g., connections, support, activity engagement, destinations) may contribute to mental and cognitive health in later life.
  • Explain the importance of studying potential biological and behavioral risk factors within a social context.

Presentations:

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Associations Between Neighborhood Social Destinations and GPS-Derived Community Mobility of Older Adults

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Kyle D. Moored, PhD (he/him/his) – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Association of Religious Attendance, Religiosity/Spirituality, and C-Reactive Protein in Middle to Older Adults in the U.S.

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Katherine Carroll Britt, PhD, MSN, RN (she/her/hers) – The University of Pennsylvania

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Daily Support Exchanges With Friends and Psychological Well-Being in Late Life

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Yee To Ng, PhD – Institution of Social Researach

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Role Captivity, Daily Social Isolation, and the Mental Health of Dementia Caregivers

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Frank Puga, PhD (he/him/his) – University of Alabama at Birmingham