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Abstract
Social isolation among older adults is an important but under-recognized risk for
poor health outcomes. Methods are needed to identify subgroups of older adults at
risk for social isolation. We constructed a typology of social isolation using data
from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) and estimated the prevalence
and correlates of social isolation among community-dwelling older adults. The typology
was formed from four domains: living arrangement, core discussion network size, religious
attendance, and social participation. In 2011, 24% of self-responding, community-dwelling
older adults (65+ years), approximately 7.7 million people, were characterized as
socially isolated, including 1.3 million (4%) who were characterized as severely socially
isolated. Multinomial multivariable logistic regression indicated that being unmarried,
male, having low education, and low income were all independently associated with
social isolation. Black and Hispanic older adults had lower odds of social isolation
compared with white older adults, after adjusting for covariates. Social isolation
is an important and potentially modifiable risk that affects a significant proportion
of the older adult population.
We explored the relationship between social isolation and mortality in a nationally representative US sample and compared the predictive power of social isolation with that of traditional clinical risk factors.