Social network type and health status in a national sample of elderly Israelis

Howard Litwin*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

87 Scopus citations

Abstract

A typology of social support networks was examined in relation to five health measures in a national probability sample of Israelis aged 60 and over, using multiple classification analysis (N = 4214). The procedure revealed that the more resourceful diversified and friend and neighbor network types were consistently associated with better scores on measures of basic and instrumental activities of daily living, incontinence, vision and self-rated health, even when controlling for respondents' age, sex and education. The religious family network type, also endowed with considerable support potential, tended to correlate with lower health scores. The narrow family focused network had average health ratings or less, and a moderate support capability. The least resourceful network type, the attenuated network, was most frequently associated with poor health.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)599-609
Number of pages11
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume46
Issue number4-5
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1998

Keywords

  • Elderly
  • Health status
  • Israel
  • Support network

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