Social integration and healthy aging among U.S. women

BACKGROUND: Social integration has been related to risk of chronic diseases and mental health conditions. PURPOSE: We investigated the association between social integration in midlife with subsequent health and well-being in aging. METHODS: We included women from the Nurses' Health Study in the United States, who had no major chronic diseases in 1996 when we assessed social integration, using the Berkman-Syme Social Network Index. We defined healthy aging after 16 years of follow-up, when women ranged from 66 to 91 years, on the basis of survival along with 4 health criteria, assessed in 2012: no history of major chronic disease diagnosis, no self-reported impairment in memory, and no major impairments in physical function or mental health. RESULTS: Of the 41,013 surviving participants in 2012 with information on social integration and health criteria, 6206 (15.1%) were healthy agers (i.e., met all four criteria) and the remaining 34,807 (84.9%) were usual agers. After multivariable adjustment, women who were socially integrated at midlife had modestly better odds (odds ratio = 1.38, 95% confidence interval: 1.23, 1.55) of healthy aging compared to women who were socially isolated. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that women who were more socially integrated were more likely to be healthy agers. The results provide evidence for a longitudinal association between social integration and healthy aging.