You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 77, Issue 5
  • Association between social activity frequency and overall survival in older people: results from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS)

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original research
Association between social activity frequency and overall survival in older people: results from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS)
  1. Ziqiong Wang1,
  2. Yi Zheng1,
  3. Haiyan Ruan1,2,
  4. Liying Li1,
  5. Linjia Duan1,
  6. Sen He1
  1. 1 Department of Cadiology, Sichuan University West China Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
  2. 2 Department of Cardiology, Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sen He, Sichuan University West China Hospital, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China; hesensubmit{at}163.com

Abstract

Background This study aimed to explore the impact of social activity frequency on mid- and long-term overall survival in older Chinese people.

Methods The association between social activity frequency and overall survival was analysed in 28 563 subjects from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) cohorts.

Results A total of 21 161 (74.1%) subjects died during the follow-up of 132 558.6 person-years. Overall, more frequent social activity was associated with longer overall survival. From baseline to 5 years of follow-up, adjusted time ratios (TRs) for overall survival were 1.42 (95% CI 1.21 to 1.66, p<0.001) in the not monthly but sometimes group, 1.48 (95% CI 1.18 to 1.84, p=0.001) in the not weekly but at least once/month group, 2.10 (95% CI 1.63 to 2.69, p<0.001) in the not daily but at least once/week group, and 1.87 (95% CI 1.44 to 2.42, p<0.001) in the almost everyday group versus never group. From 5 years to the end of follow-up, adjusted TRs for overall survival were 1.05 (95% CI 0.74 to 1.50, p=0.766) in the not monthly but sometimes group, 1.64 (95% CI 1.01 to 2.65, p=0.046) in the not weekly but at least once/month group, 1.23 (95% CI 0.73 to 2.07, p=0.434) in the not daily but at least once/week group, and 3.04 (95% CI 1.69 to 5.47, p<0.001) in the almost everyday group versus the never group. Stratified and sensitivity analysis revealed similar results.

Conclusion Frequent participation in social activity was significantly associated with prolonged overall survival in older people. However, only participating in social activity almost every day could significantly prolong long-term survival.

  • AGING
  • MORTALITY
  • PUBLIC HEALTH
  • SOCIAL CAPITAL

Data availability statement

Data are available in a public, open access repository. Researchers can download the datasets free of charge from the following websites: (1) https://opendata.pku.edu.cn; Peking University Open Access Research Database; (2) https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACDA/series/487; National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) sponsored by the US National Institute of Aging (NIA/NIH), Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at University of Michigan.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2022-219791

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Data availability statement

    Data are available in a public, open access repository. Researchers can download the datasets free of charge from the following websites: (1) https://opendata.pku.edu.cn; Peking University Open Access Research Database; (2) https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NACDA/series/487; National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) sponsored by the US National Institute of Aging (NIA/NIH), Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at University of Michigan.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • ZW and YZ contributed equally.

    • Contributors ZW and YZ designed the concept, analysed the data, interpreted the data and prepared the manuscript. HR designed the concept, interpreted the outcome and reviewed the manuscript. LL designed the concept and reviewed the manuscript. LD designed the concept and reviewed the manuscript. SH designed the concept, analysed the data, interpreted the data, and reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript, and ensure that this is the case. SHnis responsible for the overall content as guarantor.

    • Funding This study was supported by Sichuan Science and Technology Program, China (grant Number: 2022YFS0186), the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number: 2017YFC0910004), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 81600299).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.