Social participation and successful aging

"Social participation consists of three inter-related concepts most informatively labelled Social Connections, Informal Social Participation, and Volunteering." Regardless of the measure of health that was used, the literature review undertaken in this study, indicated that each concept shared a positive relationship with health in older adults. Cognitive function, depression, and even a reduced incidence of falls were some on the health outcomes shown to improve.
This article in Australian Health Review overviews the three concepts of social participation, their methods of measurement and their associations with health in older adults.

Douglas Heather, Georgiou Andrew, Westbrook Johanna (2016) Social participation as an indicator of successful aging: an overview of concepts and their associations with health. Australian Health Review 41(4), 455-462. (Open access)