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The prospective association between frequency of contact with friends and relatives and quality of life in older adults from Central and Eastern Europe

Luna, E; Ruiz, M; Malyutina, S; Titarenko, A; Kozela, M; Pająk, A; Kubinova, R; (2020) The prospective association between frequency of contact with friends and relatives and quality of life in older adults from Central and Eastern Europe. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 10.1007/s00127-020-01834-8. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

PURPOSE: Studies suggest that frequent contact with friends and relatives promote mental wellbeing in later life, but most evidence comes from Western populations. We investigated the prospective relationship between frequency of contact with friends and relatives and quality of life (QoL) among older Central and Eastern European (CEE) adults and whether depressive symptoms mediated the hypothesised longitudinal relationship. METHODS: Data from 6106 participants from the Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors In Eastern Europe (HAPIEE) study were used. Frequency of contact with friends and relatives was measured at baseline. QoL, at baseline and follow-up, was measured by the Control, Autonomy, Self-realisation, and Pleasure (CASP) 12-item scale. After assessing the prospective association using multivariable linear regression, the mediational hypothesis was tested using path analysis. RESULTS: There was a significant prospective association between frequency of contact with friends and relatives and CASP-12 score (0-36) in fully adjusted models. Per every one unit increase in frequency of contact, there was a 0.12 (95% CI 0.06, 0.17) increase in CASP-12 score at follow-up, accounting for sociodemographic, health-related and baseline QoL. Pathway results showed that 81% of the longitudinal effect of frequency of contact on QoL was mediated through depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Frequent contact with friends and relatives improves QoL of older Central and Eastern European adults, partly through buffering against depressive symptoms. Interventions to improve QoL at older ages should incorporate effective management of common mental disorders such as depression.

Type: Article
Title: The prospective association between frequency of contact with friends and relatives and quality of life in older adults from Central and Eastern Europe
Location: Germany
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s00127-020-01834-8
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-020-01834-8
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creat iveco mmons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/.
Keywords: Ageing, Central and Eastern Europe, Depression, Older ages, Quality of life, Social networks
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10091797
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