Community Social Characteristics and Health at Older Ages: Evidence From 156 Religious Communities

Catherine E Bowen and Marc Luy

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2018, vol. 73, issue 8, 1429-1438

Abstract: Objectives Previous studies have found that individuals’ health is associated with the social characteristics of their communities. However, interpreting the causality of the relationships is difficult due to a number of potential confounders on both the individual- and community-levels as well as potential selection effects. In the current article, we analyze data on health and community characteristics from Catholic order members aged 50+ living together in religious communities. We argue that the potential for confounders and selection effects is reduced in our sample. Method We use multilevel group actor–partner interdependence models and cross-sectional questionnaire data (N = 1,041, k = 156 communities) to test whether individuals’ self-rated health was associated with the level of social conflict and connectedness of their community separate from their own involvement in conflict and feelings of connectedness. Results We find that living in communities with higher levels of conflict is associated with worse health, especially at older ages. We also find that (a) the relationship between health and own feelings of connectedness is stronger for men and (b) women report better health than men in more connected communities. Discussion Our results offer further evidence that at least some social characteristics of the community have a causal impact on health.

Keywords: Community; Health; Loneliness; Social capital; Social conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw114 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:8:p:1429-1438.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().