Gender-related differences in the relationship between social and activity participation and health and subjective well-being in later life

A growing body of work suggests that social and activity participation (SAP) may contribute to health and well-being. Studies examining the effects of these activities largely focused on healthy older adults and older adults with more resources, not on frail older adults. On the latter, there is a lack of information about which activities contribute most and whether their effects vary between men and women given the gender-differentiated social roles. To address these gaps we extracted longitudinal data from the D-SCOPE frailty program for 380 participants aged 60 years or older residing in Belgium. Structural equation models tested the relationships between six levels of SAP based on a taxonomy of social activities (Levasseur et al., 2010) – from level 1 (for oneself) to level 6 (for others) – on longitudinal changes in physical and mental deterioration, well-being, and gender differences within these relationships. Results first show that older adults at risk of frailty benefit longitudinally from participating in activities in terms of their physical deterioration and well-being. Second, socially oriented activities were significantly associated with lower levels of physical deterioration and higher levels of subjective well-being (SWB), and volunteering with higher levels of SWB. Heterogeneity of activities, regardless of level on the taxonomy of social activities, seems to benefit SWB and counteract physical deterioration. Third, gender differences were confirmed by two activities for women (alone, task-oriented) and three activities for men (alone, being with others, task-oriented e.g. associational membership). Results imply that the activity itself may play a more important role than the nature of social involvement and social interaction in relation to health and wellbeing.