A Literature Review: Social Interaction & Healthy Ageing Process

This literature review explores the impact of social interaction on healthy ageing, drawing from various research studies. It analyzes factors such as social connectedness, psychological well-being, and physical health in relation to the ageing process. The review highlights the importance of social activities in promoting health and well-being among the elderly, referencing studies that demonstrate the positive effects of socialization on both mental and physical health. The discussion includes the role of social support, leisure activities, and self-esteem in contributing to healthy ageing. The review identifies gaps in the existing literature, such as the need for further research on factors that encourage socialization among the ageing population and the effects of depression and loneliness on physical health. The assignment concludes that social interaction plays a crucial role in the health and well-being of elderly individuals, emphasizing the need for strategies to promote social engagement and address factors that hinder it.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE
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Name of the Student
University Name
Author Note

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Introduction
Human are social creatures from an inheritance. The social activities thus helps an
individual to be healthy both physically and mentally while aging (World Health Organization,
2015). The assignment highlights the topic regarding the importance of social interaction for
health aging process. This topic is important for the health of the elderly people both in the
context of mental and physical perspectives (Kim and Young, 2017). The scope of the
assignment includes the analysis of factors inducing health aging, together with range of social
activities that are beneficial for healthy aging process. With the context of the case study of
Frederic Arum, the essay aims to highlight the gap or the areas that needs further research. The
thesis stamen of the essay argues with the effect of social interaction over health aging habits of
individual in the society.
Discussion
As per the research study by Hodge et al., (2013), with the growing rate of the age of
population is extremely essential to minimize the time people decreasing successful rate of
ageing. The authors of the research study focuses over the identification of the predictors of
successful ageing process. The design of the study in the research includes the collection of data
related to anthropometric, connectedness, health and behavioural information for both the
gender. The research study included individuals from UK, New Zealand and Australia. The
results of the research study included individuals having body mass index in low waist or hip
ratio, physical activeness, hypertension, arthritis, healthy range were being associated with the
rate of successful ageing. There have been no such of evidences for the association of the social
association with social connectedness with successful rate of ageing. The key concepts and
themes in the findings of the research study explain that a healthy maintenance and lifestyle of

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healthy weight and the lack of social connectedness improves the chances of successful ageing.
Social connectedness is connected to relate to ageing perception but does not tend to appear
towards helping to avoid the basic conditions related to ageing. In the connection to the case
study, the research article highlights the scenario that is similar to that of Frederic Arum who
prefers to enjoy good status of health together with socialization by local choir participation and
the community events.
According to Han et al., (2015) in their research study, ‘Psychosocial factors for
influencing healthy aging in adults in Korea’, describes that healthy aging includes
psychological, physical, spiritual and social wellbeing in the later years. The authors of the study
furthermore included perceived health status, self-esteem, depression, ego integrity, leisure
activities and the factor of loneliness were being identified as some of the influential factors
towards healthy aging. The authors of the research study illustrates the significant differences
among the general characteristics of participants including education, housing, age and economic
status. The areas of agreement of the study illustrates some of the factors related to healthy
aging has positive correlation with self-esteem, health status, activities of leisure, self-
achievements and some of the negative correlation with loneliness and depression. The research
study identified factors that influences healthy aging that includes leisure activities, ego,
depression, health status and self-achievements. The disagreement of the article regarding the
research findings included the statements that depression is the one and only factor with the
greatest influence over health aging. The key concept of the article can be concluded in the note
that mortality and well-being in elder people are generally influenced by their essence of their
own health and individual perceiving their health in a more positive manner. Psychological

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resources like self achievement, self esteem and the context of ego integrity are some of the
essential psychological factors related to the healthy aging process.
Kim and Young, (2017) in their research paper argues regarding the examination of
reciprocal casual relations among health and social activities with the references towards the
cognitive level of function among the community dwelling elderly population. The researcher of
the study conducted a longitudinal analysis of data regarding the ageing adopting cross lagged
analysis of panel. The authors of the study included the total number of 3473 older adults from
the community dwelling groups in the analysis of the study. The research study concluded with
the demonstration of the participation in the social activities that have positive impact over the
health of individual irrespective of the level of cognitive function among the community
dwelling elderly people. The key themes of the research study recommended that there is a
requirement for the development of strategies that might be utilized for encouragement of the
elderly population having cognitive decline for the maintenance of participation to the social
activities. The authors of the research study stated that in the light of the activity theory, rate of
participation in social activities increases the satisfaction of life and contribute towards the
promotion of health status for older adults (Vaportzis, Martin & Gow, 2017). The areas of
agreement of research study is the participation in social activities enhances in more rate of
positive range of health outcomes in elderly age groups as compared to the other age group
population. As per the mechanism regarding the association among health and social activities,
the social activities pays an important role to protect the individuals from psycho social stress
and the impact of stress over the human body. With the use of the secondary research analysis,
this research study measured the factor of health as the status of subjective health.

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Cherry et al., (2013) in his research study explained the influence of social support over
the health outcomes in the later life. The research study by the authors focused over the context
of social engagement as an umbrella constructs that covers the entire range of social behaviour in
the lifespan including the oldest old adults. The researcher in the study examined the relationship
and connection among the positive rate of behavioural health, social engagement and physical
health for the provision of new evidences addressing the gap in the existent literature that
concerns healthy aging and social engagement. The key concepts or themes in the research
findings is the use of the process of linear regression analysis indicating the factors associated
with the self reported health. There lies a strong connection among the health and social relations
that is well documented an has been the topic of interest among the scientific community for lot
many years. The areas of agreement of the research article is the use of the social convoy model
that holds social support as one of the essential determinant of well being through out the entire
range of life. The disagreement of the research article is the argument regarding influence of
social factors over physical health. The context of engagement and social support has been found
to be associated with better function of physics and reduction in the risk of mortality. In the
context of the stated case study of Frederic Arum, the contents and the approaches from the
article that can be evidenced incudes the suggestion of Frederic’s general physician like joining
of a club, more rate of socialization which will help in the promotion of health at all the ages.
Authorship
The authorship of the paper does not include any sort of bias. The author of the current
research paper considered the strength of each and every article reviewed targeting the
importance of socal interaction and social activities for health aging.

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Research Questions, aim or hypothesis
The aim of the research has been to identify the connection or the effect of social interaction
over the health and wellbeing of elderly population. The research questions can be highlighted as
follows.
1. What is link among social interaction and health of elderly population
The significance of the problem of the current research is identified and discussed. The gaps of
the literature will be discussed in the conclusion.
Research Design
Descriptive research design is appropriate for the achieving the aim of the research study
Research Methods
The method that has been used for selection of participants, collection of data and the
analysis of data is the survey and questionnaire
Results and limitation of the study
The results of the literature revealed that there lies strong connection among social
interaction and mental health of elderly population. The limitations of the research is the time
frame and lack of the desire to participate in survey by many individuals.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above statements and review of literature that there
lies some of the contextual similarities among the research articles and the case study of
discussion. The topic or the main themes of the literature review is to find the connection and
association among social interactions and the context of health aging. One of the main
agreements of the case study with the literature lies over the positive effect of socialization and
social activities over both mental and physical wellness of an individual. The disagreement with

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the literature is that that depression is the one and only factor with the greatest influence over
health aging. One of the gap or further area for the research includes factors helping aging
population to socialize and improve their mental health. Further researches such as effects of
depression and loneliness over physical health can be done.

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References
Cherry, K., Walker, E., Brown, J., Lamotte, L., Su, J., Jazwinski, M…. Frisard, M.
(2013). Social engagement and health in younger, older, and oldest-old adults in the
Louisiana Healthy Aging study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 32(1), 51-75
doi: 10.1177/0733464811409034
Han, KH., Lee, YJ., Gu, JS., Oh, H., Han, JH. & Kim KB. (2015). Psychosocial factors for
influencing healthy aging in adults in Korea. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes,
13(31) Retrieved from https://hqlo.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12955-015-0225-5
Hodge, A., English, D., Giles, G. & Flicker, L. (2013). Social connectedness and predictors of
successful ageing. Maturitas, 75, 361-366 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2013.05.002
Kim, DE. & Young, YJ. (2017). The reciprocal causal relationship between social activities and
health with reference to the cognitive function level among community-dwelling older
adults: A cross-lagged panel analysis. Journal of the Korean Academy of Community
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Vaportzis, E., Martin, M., & Gow, A. J. (2017). A tablet for healthy ageing: the effect of a tablet
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