Social participation and support
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Loneliness (CLSA)
Responses are 4 discrete options, later collapsed into 2 categories for analysis (lonely or not lonely) according to the following: “Participants were classified as lonely if they responded “some of the time” (1 to 2 days), “occasionally” (3 to 4 days), or “all of the time” (5 to 7 days). Those who responded “rarely or never” (<1 day) were considered not lonely.” (Mick et al, 2018)
## %
## 1 Lonely 20.87
## 2 Not lonely 75.52
## 3 <NA> 3.61
Social participation (CCHS)
Items consist of 8 different activities, with participation options ranging from “At least once a day” to “Never”. Following Hamalainen et al (2021), social participation is broken down into two measurements: the minimum frequency of participation in any activity, and the number of types of activities participated in at least weekly.
General Relationship Satisfaction
This scale was only presented to participants who responded that they were “Currently married and living together, or living with someone in a marital-like relationship”. 385 of 527 participants (73%) were presented with this scale.
Responses are discrete options, ranging from 1 (low satisfaction) to 5 (high satisfaction). The overall score is an average of responses, with higher numbers indicating better relationship satisfaction. Two items are reverse-coded.
Social Support (MOS)
Responses are 5 discrete options, ranging from “None of the time” to “All of the time”, regarding how much support is available if needed. The overall score is an average of responses, with higher numbers indicating more social support. No items are reverse-coded.
There are four subdomains: Emotional/informational support, tangible support, affectionate support, and positive social interactions. The final item on pet ownership is kept separate and does not contribute to the average score.
Source: CLSA main wave v4.0 June 2018
## Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
## 1.000 3.500 4.125 4.009 4.875 5.000 23## Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
## 1.000 3.500 4.250 4.011 5.000 5.000 23## Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
## 1.000 3.667 4.583 4.192 5.000 5.000 23## Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's
## 1.000 3.500 4.250 4.099 5.000 5.000 23## Pet companion %
## 1 None 54.84
## 2 Own a pet 40.42
## 3 <NA> 4.74
Social Network Index
There are 6 options on how often the participant gets together with various people, ranging from “Within the last day or two” to “More than 1 year ago”, with additional options of “They live in my household” and “Not applicable”.
Following the scoring procedure in Hamalainen et al (2021), 1 point was assigned if participants reported having contact at least every 1–2 weeks for each of the following categories: children, other close family members, friends, neighbors, fellow volunteers, members of nonreligious community groups, members of religious groups. One point was also assigned for being married or in a domestic partnership. The max score was therefore 8 in this study.
Note that in this study, info on marital status was pulled in from the Demographics section, and the point was assigned for the “close family members” category if the participant responded “They live in my household” for children, siblings, or other close relatives. Participants were not asked about work colleagues and schoolmates in this study.