Background
Ageing population and the need to age well
Social wellbeing and health
Methods
Design
Setting and participants
Life activities clubs Victoria
Survey
Focus groups
Dependent variables
Social support
Loneliness
Sociodemographic variables
Analysis
Survey
Focus groups
Results
Survey
Sociodemographic characteristics | Survey respondents (n = 28) | Focus groups (n = 11) | |
---|---|---|---|
Age in years, mean (SD) | 66.9 (9.0) | 67.1 (5.9) | |
Sex, n (%) | Male | 7 (25) | 2 (18) |
Female | 21 (75) | 9 (82) | |
Highest level of education, n (%) | Completed primary school | 0 (0) | 1 (9) |
Up to year 12 | 10 (36) | 3 (27) | |
Technical studies/ trade certificate | 10 (36) | 4 (36) | |
Tertiary studies | 6 (21) | 3 (27) | |
Missing | 2 (7) | 0 | |
Main life occupation, n (%) | Manager | 4 (14) | 2 (18) |
Professional | 10 (36) | 4 (3) | |
Clerical | 9 (32) | 5 (45) | |
Trade, production or labour | 5 (18) | 0 | |
Current employment, n (%) | Full-time | 2 (7) | 0 |
Part-time/casual | 3 (11) | 2 (18) | |
Not in paid employment | 23 (82) | 9 (81) | |
Ability to manage on Income, n (%) | Very difficult | 2 (7) | 0 |
Somewhat difficult | 8 (29) | 3 (27) | |
Not difficult | 18 (64) | 8 (18) | |
Present marital status, n (%) | Not married | 17 (61) | 8 (73) |
Married/defacto | 11 (40) | 3 (27) | |
Country of birth, n (%) | Australia | 23 (82) | 8 (73) |
Other | 5 (18) | 3 (27) | |
Area of residence, n (%) | Urban | 23 (82) | 9 (82) |
Rural | 5 (18) | 2 (18) | |
Health | |||
General health, n (%) | Very good- excellent | 16 (57) | NA |
Good | 9 (32) | NA | |
Fair | 3 (11) | NA | |
Functional health (Walking limitation), n (%) | Some limitation | 2 (7) | NA |
No limitation | 26 (93) | NA |
Types of activities
Frequency of attendance at LACVI and changes in social wellbeing
Outcome measures
Variable | Baseline (n = 28) | 6 months (n = 27) | 12 months (n = 28) | p-value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Duke social supporta | 3.83 (0.2) | 4.08 (0.2) | 4.09 (0.2) | 0.065d |
DJG lonelinessb | 27.95 (1.94) | 26.18 (1.94) | 25.17 (1.94) | 0.028* |
UCLA lonelinessc | 5.31 (0.39) | 4.64 (0.39) | 4.93 (0.39) | 0.023*d |
Focus groups
Social resources
“I just saw work as a collection of, um, colleagues as opposed to friends. I had a few good friends there. Most were simply colleagues or acquaintances …. [interviewer- Mmm.] ..Okay, you’d talk to them every day. You’d chatter in the kitchen, oh, pass banter back and forth when things are busy or quiet, but... Um, in terms of a friendship with those people, like going to their home, getting to know them, doing other things with them, very few. But what I did miss was the interaction with other people. It had simply gone….. But, yeah, look, that, the, yeah, that intervening period was, oh, a couple of months. That was a bit tough…. But in that time the people in LAC and the people in U3A…. And the other dance group just drew me into more things. Got to know more people. So once again, yeah, reasonable group of acquaintances.” (Male, PAFG)
“Yeah, I think, as I said, I finished up work and I, and I had more time for wa-, walking. So I think a, in meeting, in going to this group which, I saw this group of women but then someone introduced me to them. They were just meeting, just meeting a new different set of people, you know? As I said, my work people and these were just a whole different group of women, mainly women. There’s not many men. [Interviewer: Yes.]….. Although our leader is a man, which is ironic and is about, this man out in front and there’s about 20 women behind him, but, um, so yeah, and people from different walks of life and different nationalities there which I never knew in my work life, so yeah. That’s been great. So from that goes on other things, you know, you might, uh, other activities and, yeah, people for coffee and go to the pictures or something, yeah. That’s great.” (Female, PAFG)
“Well, my experience is very similar to everybody else’s…….: I, I went from having no social life to a social life once I joined a group.” (Female, PAFG)
“and I was walking around the lake in Ballarat, like wandering on my own. I thought, This is ridiculous. I mean, you’ve met all those groups of women coming the opposite way, so I found out what it was all about, so I joined, yeah. So that’s how I got into that.[ Interviewer: Yeah.] Basically sick of walking round the lake on my own. [Interviewer: Yeah, yeah.] So that’s great. It’s very social and they have coffee afterwards which is good.” (female, PAFG)
“we all have a good old chat, you know, and, and it’s all about friendship as well.” (female, SocialFG)
“with our riding group, um, you, a leader for probably two rides a year so you’ve gotta prepare for it, so some of them do reccie rides themselves, so, um, and also every, uh, so that’s something that’s, uh, a responsibility.” (male, PAFG)
Social wellbeing
Increased social support
‘it’s nice to be able to pick up the phone and share your problem with somebody else, and that’s come about through LAC. ……‘Cos before that it was through, with my family (female, PAFG)
“[Interviewer: Yeah. Does anyone else have that experience? (relating to above quote)]” There is one lady but she’s actually the one that I joined with anyway. [Interviewer: Okay.] But I, I feel there are others that are definitely getting towards that stage. It’s still going quite early days. (female1, PAFG) [Interviewer: I guess it’s quite early for some of you, yeah.] “yeah” (female 2, PAFG)