Abstract
The effect of social interaction on the well-being of elderly people has been discussed in the literature. We examined the effect of the frequency of social interaction on the emotional well-being of the elderly.
The data were collected from a survey of community-dwelling elderly over 65 years in age living in Kameoka City in 2012. The study population was adjusted to eliminate those who needed long-term care or other special support. The 8,272 subjects of the study (3,889 male, 4,383 female) were divided into three groups based on the frequency of their social interaction with friends –Low, Middle, High, and the prevalence of social interaction differences were analyzed by sex, age, and participation in leisure activities. The three group differences of their mean WHO-5 scores and GDS scores were assessed using multi-factor analysis of variance adjusted by age, sex, and participation in leisure activities. Overall, 40.7 % of women showed high frequency of social interaction and 37.1% of men showed low frequency (p<0.001). By age, 52.8 % of those over 90 years old showed low frequency and 37.1 % of those in their 70s showed high frequency (p<0.001). For those participating in physical activity, 46.6 % showed high frequency (p<0.001). With respect to measures of emotional well-being, the high-frequency group showed a higher WHO-5 score (50.37 ± 23.69, 60.07 ± 20.75, and 66.67 ± 18.21, p<0.001) and a lower GDS score (7.16 ± 2.11, 6.61 ± 1.91, and 6.28 ± 1.69, p<0.001).