Anthony R. Bardo

A sense of connection and belonging is widely recognized to be essential for mental health. Yet, since the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness, social isolation, and mental health problems have remained elevated across America. Transitions into young adulthood and older age, while distinct, similarly challenge social connectedness, especially among women. Our multi-lesson education program connected first-generation female college students with college-educated forty-plus women to foster belonging and improve mental health. The program integrated dance as a creative physical activity, promoted intergenerational engagement through a humanistic focus on generativity, and used a social network approach to gauge the development of connections among participants across the multi-lesson period. Social network analyses (SNA) revealed the program’s success in building close intergenerational connections, reinforced by qualitative insights from in-depth interviews that highlighted an emergent sense of belonging. Pre- and post-intervention surveys showed these connections significantly improved participants’ mental health. These findings were further supported by a comparison of mental health assessments between the participant (n = 20) and control groups (n = 20). Our findings demonstrate the potential for creative movement and SNA techniques to be scaled up in other community settings, highlighting their applicability in fostering social connectedness and enhancing mental health, particularly relevant to aging populations.

Objectives: We examined the number of years to be lived with and without cognitive impairment and with high self-assessed quality of life (i.e., happiness) among a nationally representative sample of Americans aged 65 years and older. Two key questions are addressed: Can people have a high quality of life despite being cognitively impaired? Which is longer: happy life expectancy or cognitively intact life expectancy? Method: Data from nine waves of the Health and Retirement Study (1998–2014) were used to estimate transition probabilities into and out of cognitively intact/impaired-un/happy states, as well as to death. Recently extended Bayesian multistate life table methods were used to estimate age-specific cognitively intact and happy life expectancy net of sex, race/ethnicity, education, and birth cohort. Results: Happiness and cognitive impairment were shown to coexist in both the gross cross-tabulated data and in the life tables. Happy life expectancy is approximately 25% longer than cognitively intact life expectancy at age 65 years, and by age 85, happy life expectancy is roughly double cognitively intact life expectancy, on average. Discussion: Lack of cognitive impairment is not a necessary condition for happiness. In other words, people can have a high quality of life despite being cognitively impaired.

Objective: This study examined the mediating effects of lifelong learning on the association between self-rated health and educational attainment among a nationally representative sample of US residents aged 50 years and older. Setting: Socioeconomic disparities in health are a major public health concern in economically developed nations where improving socioeconomic status (e.g. formal educational attainment) at the population level is challenging. In the light of population ageing, alternative approaches to improve health through malleable factors are urgently needed. Recent research suggests that participation in organised learning activities – lifelong learning – could attenuate the lack of formal educational attainment on health. Methods: Data come from the 2012 wave of the US Health and Retirement Study. Structural equation models with bootstrapping were used to estimate the mediation effect of lifelong learning activity in the relationship between self-rated health and formal educational attainment. Results: Approximately 3%–5% of the effect of formal education on self-rated health was mediated by lifelong learning activity. Findings from this study support the notion that ongoing participation in organised learning activities is beneficial for health in later life. Conclusion: Lifelong learning reflects a promising autonomous and sustainable strategy to improve health in later life. Future public health and education policy as well as education institutions should consider providing more learning opportunities for older populations.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is largely understood to be a fundamental determinant of health. Recently, subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) has emerged as a potentially important predictor of health above and beyond traditional (i.e., objective) SES indicators (OSS). The current study adds to this emerging body of research by examining the potentially important role of status discrepancies for health outcomes. We used nationally representative data from three East Asian countries (China, Japan, and South Korea) (2010 East Asian Social Survey) and a non-linear statistical technique (i.e., diagonal mobility model) to simultaneously model the independent contributions of OSS and SSS and their discrepancy for three health outcomes. Findings showed that SSS does, in fact, explain additional variation in health net of OSS in most cases, and status discrepancy is not associated with any of the three health outcomes. While status discrepancy was not found to be a driving factor in determining the predictive power of SSS net of OSS (at least in East Asia), the present study adds robustness to the accumulating evidence that challenges the social inequality hypothesis and provides a basis from which future research can build and contribute further to the understanding surrounding socioeconomic status and health outcomes.