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Symposium

Behavioral and Social Sciences

Findings From NSHAP: Social Connectedness, Health Indicators, Medication Effects, and Predicting Mortality

Saturday, November 11, 2023
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
Location: Room 120

The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project’s broad range of both social measures, and objective and self-reported health measures enable detailed analysis of the intersections between these fundamental aspects of older adults’ lives. The papers in this symposium explore various aspects of these topics from different angles. The first explores employment as an important form of social participation, establishing that full-time employment among respondents is associated with better cognitive function, and less ADL and IADL difficulties. The second examines how social isolation affects men and women differently. Social Networks are the focus of the third paper and compare family to friendship ties. Using NSHAP’s unique medication log, Wilder examines sleep disturbances and the prevalence of respondents taking medications with somnolence as an adverse event, demonstrating the need for more research into how this might affect older adults’ health and well-being. Li uses NSHAP data to develop machine learning models to predict 10-year mortality of older adults in the US which perform with better accuracy than logistic regression.

Learning Objectives:

  • ...participants will understand several new findings about older adults' social factors, including the role employment plays as social participation in the health of older adults, and gender differences in effects of social isolation.
  • ...participants will be able to describe new NSHAP findings regarding respondents' social activities and contexts, including the role full-time employment plays as social participation, and how social isolation affects men and women differently in their care for themselves and their homes.
  • ...participants will be able to describe new NSHAP findings including the finding that medications that have somnolence as an adverse effect may affect cognitive function and well-being using NSHAP's unique medication log, and the finding that machine learning models perform better than linear regression for predicting 10-year mortality.

Presentations:

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Employment as a Form of Social Participation Among Older Adults: Links to Cognitive and Functional Health

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Peilin Yang, MA (he/him/his) – University of Michigan Ann Arbor

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    The Relationship of Social Isolation to Self-Neglect Among Older Adults: Results of a National Survey

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Ashwin Kotwal, MD, MS (he/him/his) – University of California San Francisco

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Local Family and Friend Ties and Their Relationship to Social Support and Strain Among Older Adults

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Won Choi, MA – University of Chicago

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Use of Prescription Medications With Somnolence as a Potential Adverse Effect Among Older Adults in the United States

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Jocelyn Wilder, MPH (she/they) – NORC

  • 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
    Predicting 10 Year Mortality With Machine Learning: Evidence From National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

    Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Yiang Li (he/him/his) – University of Chicago