Social connections and well-being in older adults

世界各地的人口结构都发生了重大变化，老年人的绝对数量和比例正在迅速增加，不仅在英国和欧洲，在印度和中国等中等收入国家也是如此。增进民众福祉是大多数政府关注的重点，因此，了解影响老年人福祉的因素并确定能够增进福祉的政策杠杆至关重要。许多老年人报告说，社会关系对他们来说特别重要，所以我们的项目关注社会关系的不同方面，以及这些方面与幸福的关系。“幸福”一词对不同的人意味着不同的东西，可以包括生活满意度、生活质量和幸福感。社会关系可以包括与家人或朋友的联系，人们对自己所在社区的感受，参加各种活动或团体，以及孤独感。这些因素中的每一个都可能以不同的方式影响幸福感的各个方面，并可能因文化因素而异。较贫穷的人、有疾病的人和照顾者通常幸福感水平较低，我们想知道社会关系如何影响这些群体的幸福感。人们对老年人幸福感的变化仍然知之甚少。由于我们拥有跨越几年的幸福感不同方面的数据，我们将能够看到这些变化是如何随着时间的推移而变化的，以及这些变化与社会关系的变化是如何关联的。这项研究是伦敦大学学院的一个学术小组与致力于老龄化和长寿问题的政策智库(英国国际长寿中心)合作进行的，将使用来自英国、欧洲和印度的大量老年人队列数据来澄清这些关系。我们预计，这项研究的结果将有助于政策制定者和实践者制定政策和干预措施，帮助改善老年群体的幸福感。

There are major demographic shifts throughout the world and the absolute number and proportion of older adults is increasing rapidly not only in the UK and Europe but also in middle income nations such as India and China. Promoting the well-being of the population is a focus for most governments, so it is crucial to understand what affects well-being in older adults and to identify the policy levers that can promote well-being. Many older people report that social relationships are particularly important to them, so our project focuses on different aspects of social relationships and how these are related to well-being. The term 'well-being' means different things to different people and can include life satisfaction, quality of life, and feelings of happiness. Social relationships can include contact with family or friends, how people feel about their communities, participation in various activities or groups and feelings of loneliness. Each of these may affect each dimension of well-being in different ways and are likely to vary depending on cultural factors. People who are poorer, those with an illness and those who are carers usually have low levels of well-being and we would like to know how social relationships affect well-being in these groups. Changes in well-being in older age are still poorly understood. As we have data on different aspects of well-being spanning several years, we will be able to see how these change over time and how these changes relate to changes in social relationships. This study is a collaboration between an academic group at University College London and a policy think-tank working on issues of ageing and longevity (the International Longevity Centre - UK), and will clarify these relationships using data from large cohorts of older adults from England, across Europe and India. We anticipate that findings from this study will help policy makers and practitioners develop policies and interventions that can help improve well-being in older age groups.