Association between social participation and disability-free life expectancy in Japanese older people: the Ohsaki Cohort 2006 Study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND\nAlthough social participation has been reported to be associated with significantly lower risks of mortality and disability, to our knowledge, no study has estimated its impact on disability-free life expectancy (DFLE). Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between social participation and DFLE in community-dwelling older people.\n\n\nMETHODS\nWe analyzed 11-year follow-up data from a cohort study of 11,982 Japanese older adults (age ≥65 years) in 2006. We collected information on the number of social participation using a questionnaire. Using this information, we categorized the participants into four groups. DFLE was defined as the average number of years a person could expect to live without disability. The multistate life table method using Markov model was employed for calculating DFLE.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe results revealed that DFLE (95% confidence interval) according to the number of social participation was 17.8 years (17.3-18.2) for no activities, 20.9 (20.4-21.5) for one activity, 21.5 (20.9-22.0) for two activities, and 22.7 (22.1-23.2) for three activities in men, and 21.8 (21.5-22.2), 25.1 (24.6-25.6), 25.3 (24.7-25.9), and 26.7 years (26.1-27.4), respectively, in women. This difference in DFLE did not change after the participants were stratified for smoking, body mass index, physical activity, and depression.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nSocial participation is associated with longer DFLE among Japanese older people; therefore, encouraging social participation at the population level could increase life-years lived in good health.