Social support and subsequent disability: It is not the size of your network that counts Deirdre McLaughlin, Janni Leung, Nancy Pachana, Leon Flicker, Graeme Hankey, Annette Dobson. NHMRC/ARC Ageing Well, Ageing Productively Grant

Social Support  Protective of mortality and morbidity  Mixed findings on functional ability

Sample  Older adults aged at baseline (1999 and 2001)  Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (n=2,013)  Health in Men Study (n=680)  Follow-up in 2008

Duke Social Support Index  Network subscale  Scores range from 0 to 21.  Higher scores = more social contacts.  Satisfaction subscale  Scores range from 6 to 18.  Score <17= not satisfied. Predictor at baseline

Outcome at follow-up 1.Activities of Daily Living 2.Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

After controlling for chronic conditions at baseline, women had larger social networks than men However, social network size was not associated with subsequent disability in either women or men.

But….. Lack of satisfaction with social support was more strongly associated with subsequent disability This result was apparent in both women and men

Conclusions For both women and men, satisfactory subjective social support, rather than network size, was most strongly associated with subsequent functional ability.

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